CM Punk’s UFC debut officially announced for September

Yesterday, Ariel Helwani Tweeted he’d heard CM Punk’s UFC debut would not happen at UFC 202, but a month later.

This normally wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But with the frequent delays for the former WWE champ’s arrival to the Octagon, and the hope among many that Punk’s debut would take place the same weekend as SummerSlam (202 - headlined by the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz - happens on August 20, the night before WWE’s big Summer pay-per-view (PPV)), the MMAFighting.com scribe’s Tweet sparked a new round of “Punk will never have a UFC fight” talk.

And maybe he still won’t. A lot can happen between now and September. But Dana White’s promotion took the step of officially telling the world that CM Punk vs. Mikey Gall would be a part of UFC 203 in Cleveland:

This will be an mid-card bout, albeit a high-profile one, on a card headlined by Heavyweight champ, and Cleveland’s own, Stipe Miocic defending against Alistair Overeem, known to pro wrestling fans as a slayer of Lesnars.

Comic book writer Punk, probably wisely given the stop-start nature of his mixed martial arts career, chose to only acknowledge the news via a clip from the classic mockumentary This is Spinal Tap:

Excited for Mr. AJ Lee to finally, officially become an Ultimate Fighter? Do you think the bout will happen as scheduled? How will Punk do?