"CM Punk is an attraction. He's not trying to be a world champion, he's not trying to avenge a loss, but he's an attraction. He has name identity and people are making an emotional investment into what he's doing; some positive and some not...They got a guy with a name that's had a 2-year build, because of training and injury and so forth. That builds a lot of anticipation. So there is a lot of anticipation in this long-awaited debut," stated world-renowned commentator Jim Ross, who shared his thoughts on the UFC debut of former WWE star CM Punk. Check it out!
PC: It was a tough weekend for both of us as college football fans, with LSU and Oklahoma both losing games. You have an unparalleled commitment to the University of Oklahoma. Can you just tell us about that commitment and loyalty to that school?
JR: Well, I grew up being an Oklahoma fan through my grandfather and my father. There was nothing else as far as sports was concerned with them. Oklahoma didn't have a pro team until the Thunder came to town, so University of Oklahoma football was the big thing. It was just part of my upbringing. I'm very proud to support them. Unlike a lot of fans apparently in today's world, they don't handle adversity well. I think that's a societal issue. Adversity is a unique matter in today's world. Hey, it's a long year; they'll probably lose other games, or not, who knows, but one game is not going to determine the whole season. Our system isn't that flawed where you get one loss and you're automatically eliminated from everything. That's just not the way it works.
PC: When we spoke years ago, we spoke about the possibility of you bringing boxing or mixed martial arts to life like you did for years in professional wrestling. Now that you have been calling some pro boxing, what has that transition been like?
JR: It's been a lot of fun. It's been challenging at times finding my groove, and I'm still looking for that and I always will. I'm not one to reside along in a comfort zone. We can always get better at what we do. But I've enjoyed it. I don't want to say it's easier than pro wrestling or MMA, but I do believe it's more straight forward. You're dealing with right hands and left hands legally, so it's less things to manage I guess you would say. I'm enjoying it. I got another fight this Friday night in Vegas with Al Bernstein, my partner. It's a real interesting concept called "Knockout Night at the D!" It's at the downtown Las Vegas Event Center, which is an outdoor facility which is kind of cool. It's a neat deal. And we'll pack it. They've been selling it out when we run there. And the interesting concept is we've been featuring fighters that are highly regarded within their camps or they have high expectations on them and they are young and they have really good records. So we have found that their promoters and managers are willing to put those glowing records on the line against other fighters with the same record and experience level. So the fights are very competitive and they're for something and they mean something. I try to do as good a job as I can gathering information at the fighter meetings, which I really enjoy, and even the fight themselves in learning about the fighters. They don't have a long resume. It's like CM Punk's MMA debut; he doesn't have a resume where you can go track his success or lack there of inside of the Octagon. He doesn't have any failures either by the way. But from my perspective in boxing, I gotta tell the fans why they should be watching the show or interested in that fighter, and a lot of times, that's about their family, personal life, or home life; different things that their fans could identify with. I'm having a good time working with Al, who is a great pro. We're doing stuff for CBS Sports Network. This show Friday night will air I think at 11:00 eastern. But they could check their listings on that. But CBS Sports Network is growing and they are trying to do their share at CBS in general to put the pulse back into boxing. The thing about boxing is that it's not different from WWE, NFL, or any entity. You gotta build stars. Attractions sell pay-per-views and attractions get TV ratings.
PC: That's what CM Punk is for the UFC.
JR: Yes, CM Punk is an attraction. He's not trying to be a world champion, he's not trying to avenge a loss, but he's an attraction. He has name identity and people are making an emotional investment into what he's doing; some positive and some not. That's the business that we're in as long as people are making a choice. If they weren't making a choice, that would mean they wouldn't care. And I think people do care.
PC: That was something else we discussed years ago and that's the possibility of Brock Lesnar opening the doors for other pro wrestlers to come over to the UFC and that's obviously happened now.
JR: Many MMA purists will probably not like this analogy; the deal is, Percy, is that the UFC has become a major sport. It's new, it feels good, but they gotta have stars and they gotta have attractions. They gotta sell pay-per-views and feed this monster. In any event, that's where we are with that. They got a guy with a name that's had a 2-year build, because of training and injury and so forth. That builds a lot of anticipation. So there is a lot of anticipation in this long-awaited debut. I know that it was not done intentionally, but inadvertently, it's a pretty good promotional tool to build that anticipation. So now fans could make a choice. The diehard "I hate pro wrestling" MMA fans will do the same thing they did when Brock Lesnar came over and that's buy the pay-per-views, and more often than not, hope for the ex-pro wrestler to get beat. We see it every day in sports; there is a home team and a visitor and Punk's the visitor. He's not the home team. He's on the road, playing a road game, and we'll see how he shapes up. But I think that the UFC, much like the WWE, has become a television entity. Think of how successful, Percy, that the UFC would be, or not, if they didn't have a strong television presence. And to have a strong television presence, you need attractions. You need great fighters and attractions.
PC: How do you see CM Punk fairing?
JR: I don't know if CM Punk's going to be a great fighter. I have no idea because I have never seen him fight. And anybody that says they know conclusively how his fighting career is going to begin and end, I want to speak with them to get some tips on football bets and the stock market because I need some help. That's where we are, man. The end result is the UFC has evolved into this television monster they they have to feed and they need attractions, and even though he's not in the top two fights on the bill, he's still a big part of the pay-per-view card and promotion and marketing efforts because the UFC is smart enough to know what they got. They've already been through this with Lesnar. It's a different version, different breed of cat, but still compelling nonetheless. So we will see how that plays out when he has his fight on Saturday. It's smart business by the UFC and anybody that's a MMA fan. I love this one here, "Well, he's taking a spot away from a real fighter; someone who has invested much more time than he has." They omit, Percy, the fact that he's going to sell pay-per-views. The curiosity factor is going to sell pay-per-views, man, and the guys that are in the main event that have a piece of the pay-per-view action I'm sure will have a difference in opinion than some of Punk's critics. Punk's presence is going to help them make more money and that's quite frankly why they fight.
PC: Lesnar did it and Punk is doing it as well; they are bringing a little bit of their WWE self to MMA and using it to either gain fans or get underneath their skin. It's actually a smart thing to do because they are coming into unfamiliar territory, so how do you familiarize it? You bring a little bit of your character with you.
JR: I think you're right. Here we are, football season is kicking off, and as we eluded to earlier, neither of our college teams had great weekends because we lost our openers. Both ironically on the road against the "local team" in a pro stadium. And it didn't work out well for neither of us, but that's neither here nor there. It was a good weekend. I saw a lot of old friends, I went to the game and had fun, so I'm not complaining. The issue here is I think Punk...If I was UFC management, I would want him to use some WWE or pro wrestling like analogy or hype without going over the top and pushing me away when it becomes more of a sales pitch than organic. I'm surprised quite honestly that he hasn't done more to hype the fight up. I'm at the belief that you can't over Conor McGregor anything in this sport. We assume that everybody hears everything that we write or say and they don't. I think he's going to be a real good addition to this card for the financial benefits that he brings to the show. It's funny that all of these experts got it all figured out, man. I've had people tweet me on my Twitter that he's not going to last 30 seconds. They might be right. I don't know. But in the same breath, they don't know either and that's why we are going to buy the fight.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]