Former WWE superstar CM Punk will get another chance to prove himself when he faces Mike Jackson at UFC 225 on June 9th in Chicago.
It’s now a year-and-a-half since the 39-year-old first stepped into the Octagon and quickly found himself out of his depth against Mickey Gall, who took him down almost immediately and proceeded to tap him out by rear-naked choke.
Punk had spent 18 months training for his transition to the sport prior to that fight and has been reported to have been hard at work since at the Roufusport gym ever since in the hopes that he would get a second opportunity to compete in the Octagon.
In Mike Jackson he now faces the opponent he was originally expected to fight against in his debut, before an injury to Punk led put the match-up on ice.
Instead, Jackson, who at the time had never fought professionally, was paired up against the aforementioned Mickey Gall in an eliminator fight for the opportunity to go up against Punk, and lasted only 45 seconds before being tapped out.
So, what we have here is two fighters in Punk and Jackson who under normal circumstances just simply aren’t good enough to be anywhere close to competing in the Octagon, but due to CM’s star status and drawing power, the UFC are going ahead with it anyway.
UFC 225 has plenty of other high-level match-ups to look forward to though, with Robert Whittaker looking to defend his middlweight title for the first time in a rematch with Yoel Romero, while there’s also an interim welterweight title clash between Colby Covington and former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.
