As noted earlier, UFC President Dana White announced that Mickey Gall, the fighter who asked White, who was in the crowd at the time as the scene was filmed for his new “Dana White: Lookin’ For A Fight” reality show, to let him be CM Punk’s debut opponent in the UFC, will in fact be fighting for that exact opportunity at the UFC 196 pay-per-view in February.
Gall will be fighting Michael Jackson, another fighter who will be making his debut in the UFC in a preliminary bout on the UFC Fight Pass portion of the UFC 196 event scheduled for Saturday, February 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Punk is scheduled to be cageside to watch in hopes that Gall pulls off the victory, as it would give his highly-anticipated UFC debut has a nice organic build-up.
If Gall manages to get past Jackson on 2/6, the fight would go from step one — Gall calling Punk out on White’s new show — all the way to the final step before they enter their respective fight camps — Punk reacting to Gall winning from the front row, similar to the infamous shot of Conor McGregor reversing the roles in a similar situation and reacting to Jose Aldo being in the crowd after his win over Dennis Siver.
As things stand right now, Punk is scheduled to make his official fighting debut in the UFC at their landmark UFC 200 event on Saturday, July 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For those who missed it, you can watch Dana White’s announcement and read more about the plans for CM Punk’s first fight in the UFC by clicking here.
