It was at UFC 181; specifically right after the Tony Ferguson vs. Abel Trujillo lightweight fight, when former WWE standout CM Punk made his UFC signing public.
The 36-year old fighter, who holds a 0-0 record, will kick off his mixed martial arts career with the most prominent promotion company in the world. To make things more interesting and noteworthy, Punk himself reveled that he will be part of the pay-per-view card of a still undetermined date in 2015.
Historically, most of the UFC's big names would compete at a smaller-named promotion company first, in an attempt to "prove their worth" and get themselves noticed by either Dana White or the other executives. Former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who also came from the World Wrestling Entertainment prior to his MMA career, first fought for Dynamite!! USA, before stepping into the big show.
Much of the backlash from some of the fighters stemmed from this situation alone. ONE FC welterweight champion Ben Askren, who has been the most vocal of them all, feels that the UFC made an "amateur move" when they signed Punk, whom he branded as a "0-0 fake wrestler."
However, UFC president Dana White defended his company's latest major business move. According to the company executive, the decision to sign Punk (Phil Brooks in real life) was mainly due to the former professional wrestler's intent to try it out. However, he also noted that he is skeptical about it, much like how Askren and a chunk of other fighters do.
"Who knows? You don't know unless you try," White said speaking MMA journalist Ariel Helwani about his conversation with Punk. "You don't know if the guy can fight unless he fights. He wants to fight here."
White also revealed that while Punk is not yet certain about when exactly his debut will be taking place, the former WWE champion is looking to dedicate himself to just training at high-level mixed martial arts for the next six to seven months.
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