Opinion

Can We All Admit That CM Punk Stinks As An MMA Fighter Now?

Published

5 years ago

June 14, 2018

UFC 225 is in the books. CM Punk, fresh off of his judicial victory, got his clock cleaned, again, so I’ll just come out and say it: CM Punk stinks as a MMA fighter.

Oh, I can hear what all the Punk fans and supporters are going to say: ‘He gave so much heart’, ‘He kept fighting’, or, my personal favorite, ‘It takes a lot of balls to do what he did. He was brave. You try getting in that Octagon.’

Well, first of all, I’d like to think I have enough sense to realize that just being good at one thing doesn’t mean being good at something else ,to know to quit while I’m ahead and when to stay in my lane. Being humiliated in one fight after over a year of training and delays would’ve been enough for me, never mind training for another two years and getting my ass kicked again.

One of the narratives I’ve heard since Saturday is how much Punk had improved in the two years since his last fight. True, he actually managed to last three rounds instead of getting choked out in the first one, but ‘vast improvement’ only applies if your bar of expectation is set extremely low.

Let’s look at the stats between Punk’s first fight and his second one:

Fight #1: The stats aren’t pretty. Punk got one shot in and it wasn’t a good one. His opponent, on the other hand, basically used him as a punching bag before choking Punk out.

Fight #2: Admittedly, Punk did do better than last time on the surface, but it doesn’t take much digging or math skills to see big problems.

Striking: This is the biggest, glaring problem. Punk got in 81 strikes, which doesn’t sound bad compared to Jackson’s 95, but of the 63 strikes to the head and upper torso, only 10 of them were power strikes, meaning they were hard hits. That’s is an abysmal 15%.

He did a little better in shots to the torso: 7 out of 13 body strikes were power hits, about 53%. His strikes to the legs were 2 out of 5 or, roughly, 40%.

Grappling: There’s no nice way to put this: For a man who used to make a good living as a wrestler, Punk’s grappling leaves a lot to be desired. Of 9 takedown attempts, he only got 1, which amounts to 11.1%.

Now, let’s compare that to his opponents.

Mickey Gall: Safe to say that Punk was basically Gall’s punching bag for his first fight. Gall had 32 strikes and 20 of them, 62.5%, landed on CM Punk’s noggin.

Mike Jackson: Mike Jackson, unfortunately for him, didn’t put Punk away immediately, but his stats are pretty impressive. Of 95 strikes to the head, 54 were power strikes, which is about 56%. He landed 10 power strikes out of 12, or about 83% of his body strikes, but no power strikes to the legs. In grappling, Jackson only made one attempt to Punk’s 9, but he was successful.

Scoring: Due to Punk being choked out, no scoring is available for his first fight, but the scoring for his second fight was actually quite close. Jackson got a score of 30 from three of the four judges, while Punk got 26 from the same three judges.

Not very good, is it? The second fight may have been seen as a vast improvement because Punk lasted longer than two minutes, but it was a mediocre fight at best. Punk was out classed in every respect, just like last time

Now, lest the Punk defenders write this off as a hater throwing shade, I would like to point out that several sports sites that cover MMA have been even more critical than I am. ESPN (who just signed a deal with UFC), and Bleacher Reports referred to the bout as ’embarrassing’ and Twitter’s Trending Topics said Punk was ‘Crushed’ by Jackson.

I realize that the Punk supporters want to make this about chasing your dreams and taking chances, but that argument was ridiculous in 2016 and laughable now. Let’s be honest with ourselves: Punk had no business being on a UFC card in 2016 or 2018. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise.

Punk vs Gall Stats

Punk vs Jackson Stats

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Opinion

King’s WrestleMania Rewind: Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka from WrestleMania 34

Chris king is back with one of the most underrated matches in WrestleMania history–Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka!

Published

2 months ago

April 2, 2023

Chris King

WWE WrestleMania 34 Charlotte Flair Asuka

Chris king is back with one of the most underrated matches in WrestleMania history–Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka!

We look back at Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka at WWE WrestleMania 34. ‘The Empress of Tomorrow’ put her unprecedented and historic undefeated streak of 914 days on the line against ‘The Queen’s’ SmackDown Women’s Championship.

For years, this was considered a dream match while Asuka dominated the roster in NXT, while Flair won numerous championships on the main roster on both Raw and SmackDown. The Empress made her long-awaited debut on the September 11th episode of Raw and began to tear through the competition.

Asuka outlasted all twenty-nine other women in the historic first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match to challenge for the title of her choosing. At Fastlane, she made her choice.

The WWE Universe was so excited for this match myself included. Both superstars delivered a fantastic performance on the Grandest Stage of Them All executing counter after counter. Asuka showed off some nasty-looking kicks to her opponent, and Flair hit a thunderous Spanish Fly off the top rope. Flair was seconds away from defeat at the hands of The Empress but she locked in Figure Eight and Asuka was forced to tap out.

I can’t even begin to explain how shocked I was at this outcome, as nearly everyone expected The Empress to continue her undefeated streak and walk away with the women’s title. This controversial decision was the downfall of Asuka’s momentum. She would ultimately win the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the 2018 TLC pay-per-view in the triple-threat ladder match.

Fast forward to this year when Asuka has recently returned with her Japanese-inspired persona Kana. Kana is dangerous and ruthless and is heading into a championship with Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 39. The Empress has regained all her momentum and is highly favored to walk away with the Raw Women’s Championship. Let’s hope that Asuka and Belair can tear the house down and deliver an A+ grade match both women are fully capable of.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Opinion

King: Dominik Mysterio Needs To Do This At WrestleMania

Chris King is here with what WWE should do with Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania in his long-awaited match against his father Rey Mysterio Jr.

Published

2 months ago

April 1, 2023

Chris King

Chris King is here with what WWE should do with Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania in his long-awaited match against his father Rey Mysterio Jr.

On this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Rey Mysterio finally snapped and beat some sense into his disrespectful punk-ass kid Dominik. The member of the Judgement Day came out to push his father again for a match on the Grandest Stage of Them All, this time with his mother and sister at ringside. The ungrateful punk told his mom to “Shut Up,” as a father even I wanted to jump through the screen and whoop his ass.

Back in October of last year, Mysterio made the emotional decision to possibly quit the company but, instead, Triple H persuaded the Lucha libre superstar to move over to SmackDown to avoid his son. This came after Dominik shockingly turned on his father at Clash at the Castle. Mysterio did everything he could to refuse his despicable son’s challenge for Mania but, a man can only be pushed so far. Mysterio will be inducted into the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame and I expect Dominik to embarrass his father during his speech to further this personal feud.

Yes, the WWE Universe hates Dominik and wants to see him get the ever-loving crap kicked out of him but, this feud is missing a special ingredient to capitalize on the biggest heat possible. Throughout this feud, Dominik has made mention of the legendary Eddie Guerrero on several occasions going back to the “iconic” 2005 feud.

I know WWE might not want to go this route but, Dominik MUST come out to Eddie Guerrero’s theme at Mania. The disrespectful punk needs to come out in a lowrider to garner nuclear heat. It doesn’t matter if The Judgement Day comes out and causes interference for Dominik to get the win, all that matters is that both superstars get the biggest payoff of this nearly year-long feud. Just imagine the Roman Reigns heat after he defeated The Undertaker and multiply that by ten. Dominik portrays the perfect heel and he truly is the missing ingredient that The Judgement Day needed to grow and evolve into a top faction.