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#4. CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall – UFC 203
The history of MMA is littered with attempts by professional wrestlers to prove themselves as legitimate tough guys. Still, perhaps the most infamous example of this remains CM Punk’s brief dalliance with the UFC in 2016.
After a highly publicized fall-out with WWE in 2014, it was expected that Punk would join a rival wrestling promotion. Instead, he stunned everyone by appearing at UFC 181 that December to announce he’d signed a contract to fight in the octagon.
On the face of it, the idea was ridiculous. Punk had no legitimate martial arts background, was already in his late 30s, and was badly banged up from years of pro-wrestling. His chances of ever succeeding in the UFC were slim.
And yet, just under two years later, when the UFC announced that he’d be facing neophyte Mickey Gall – who had just two professional fights to his name – at UFC 203, plenty of fans were suckered right in.
It helped that Punk had genuinely been training hard for the fight at the Roufusport camp – something that naturally, the UFC heavily documented and marketed to build to the fight.
In the end, though, the doubters were proven right as Gall beat Punk down in one-sided fashion, finishing him in the first round with a rear-naked choke.
It was an embarrassing showing from the former WWE champion, but UFC 203 still did an above-average buyrate on pay-per-view – proving that the UFC’s marketing skills were able to trump any lack of fighting skills from Punk.
#3. Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy – UFC 111
In 2010, Georges St-Pierre was arguably the most dominant fighter in the UFC. The reigning UFC welterweight champion, GSP had turned back the challenge of Jon Fitch, BJ Penn and Thiago Alves after claiming the belt for the second time. He was then on the lookout for his next challenger.
And so, although rematches with Fitch and Josh Koscheck seemed like a possibility, the UFC instead took the opportunity to find a fresh challenger and matched Dan Hardy against Mike Swick with a shot at GSP going to the winner.
Hardy won and was granted the title shot, and on the face of it, there was nothing wrong with that. ‘The Outlaw’ was a great fighter and had won his first four UFC bouts. The only problem? On paper, at least, he stood no chance against St-Pierre.
That didn’t matter to the UFC, though. Hardy could talk a better game than his rivals, and so the promotion dedicated a UFC Prime Time series to build up the fight, selling ‘The Outlaw’ as St-Pierre’s most deadly challenger to date.
For his part, GSP was more than happy to run with that narrative, largely to ensure his motivation for the fight was high. And so, despite only having one knockout in the UFC to his name, Hardy was marketed as the most dangerous power-puncher in the entire sport.
Fans bought into it and millions tuned in on pay-per-view to see St-Pierre dominate Hardy across five rounds, giving the British fighter barely any offense throughout the fight.
Again, there was nothing wrong with the matchmaking here – Hardy was a worthy contender – but the fact that the UFC managed to sell him as such a huge threat to GSP was a piece of marketing genius.
