Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson isn't your typical UFC fight. While the promotion bills itself as the one true home for top-level MMA, Gall and Jackson combined for just one professional bout entering Saturday's Fight Night 82.
They aren't quietly sitting on an impressive resume, mind you. Neither man owns a strong combat sports pedigree outside the realm of MMA. They're not Glory kickboxers leaping from the ring to the cage, nor are they Judoka or wrestlers that had their Olympic dreams dashed by injuries.
Gall and Jackson, plain and simple, are unknown commodities. However, Gall won the right to face former professional wrestler Phil "CM Punk" Brooks with a first-round submission in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Two years ago, this fight would never have happened in the UFC. Two years ago, however, CM Punk was still a professional wrestler.
The UFC threw out its playbook when it signed the Straight Edge Savior and it's had to call audibles ever since to accommodate his presence. One of those audibles was finding similarly experienced opposition (that is, fighters with something close to a 0-0 professional record), and the UFC got back to basics to do so, slapping together a reality show for the express purpose of finding a foe for Punk.
That desperate need led the UFC to Gall and eventually to Jackson. It then established some incredibly high stakes for what would otherwise be an inconsequential fight. The victor would win the CM Punk lottery. The loser may be outright released by the UFC.
Whether or not those stakes weighed on Gall's mind is impossible to tell, but he most certainly performed like a man on a mission. From the get-go, Gall came out pumping his jab and, after closing the distance, he rocked Jackson with an overhand right.
Jackson crashed to the canvas and Gall immediately pounced on him, hunting for a rear-naked choke. With little difficulty, he managed to get it, forcing Jackson to tap in just 44 seconds. After the official decision was read, UFC commentator Jon Anik entered the cage and made the long-awaited matchup official:
While CM Punk vs. Gall is still a spectacle lacking almost any value from a sporting perspective, this was a perfect performance by Gall. As Ben Fowlkes of MMAJunkie.com spelled out on Twitter, things couldn't have been scripted better, as Gall wowed fans with his quick win and gave Punk and his head coach, Duke Roufus, basically no film to work with:
Good thing about Gall winning in 45 seconds is he gives CM Punk almost no tape to study. But then, Punk's game is itself a mystery.
— Ben Fowlkes (@benfowlkesMMA) February 7, 2016
Unfortunately, it's unknown when or where Punk vs. Gall will happen, with Punk telling Fox Sports' Ariel Helwani he wanted to fight at UFC 200 in July while UFC President Dana White muttered about UFC 199 in June. Either way, after more than a year of mystery, there are finally some concrete details when it comes to Punk's UFC debut.
