The narratives that spiral outward from a big fight are interesting things. And while CM Punk vs. Mickey Gall wasn’t a match of two gargantuan figures in the MMA sphere, it was very much a big fight. CM Punk, wiht his past WWE stardom in tow, draws a crowd. If the PPV estimates are to be believed, he still draws a pretty big one too. So, when he and Mickey Gall squared off at UFC 203 there were a lot of narratives at play.
In the UFC’s eyes CM Punk was the everyman, dreaming big, and getting his opportunity to take a fight on the world’s largest stage for MMA. But, as Mickey Gall told Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of the MMA Hour, in his eyes Punk was an intruder, and it was his job to show everyone that a guy like that doesn’t belong here (transcript via MMA Fighting):
“I 100 percent felt a strong obligation to make an example out of him,” Gall told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour. “I felt indebted to my sport, to the veterans of my sport — everyone in my sport — to go in there and dominate every second of this fight.”
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“I figured he’d be tough, man,” Gall said. “Those wrestlers, they’re tough guys. They’re slamming themselves around and stuff. It was pretty much what I expected. I knew once he got in there with me, I was gonna be able to just dominate him.”
Gall also talked about the experience of being part of such a big event, the potential Sage Northcutt fight on the horizon (which Gall says would happen at 170lbs), and of course, the build up to and the CM Punk fight itself. Check out the whole thing.
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