The MMA world was set abuzz on Saturday night, but not because of the two title fights that headlined UFC 181. Yeah, the successful title defense by Anthony Pettis and controversial title win by Robbie Lawler generated discussion, but the real talking point that came out of the evening was the announcement that the UFC had signed former WWE superstar CM Punk to a contract. Punk wouldn’t be a brand ambassador, or a commentator, or any other non-active personality for the UFC – he’d be a fighter. That’s right – the UFC signed a former pro wrestler, someone that was one of WWE’s biggest stars over the last five years, and it had taken over the sports world.

The immediate waves generated by the signing were significant. ESPN sent out text alerts and had the story on the ESPN.com front page. Fox Sports Live was (predictably) all over the story. Long-time WWE announcer and executive Jim Ross wrote a column for Fox talking about the signing. I can’t remember the last time there was this much buzz surrounding the UFC – and all of that for someone who hasn’t even had one competitive MMA fight.

However, I have one major question about Punk’s signing – how will UFC utilize him?

The initial assumption is that UFC can use Punk to pop a PPV buyrate. And that’s all well and good, and probably the best course of action for them. Putting Punk as the first or second fight of the PPV card would be a nice compromise – you’re not taking the main or co-main event slot away from a fight that’s for a belt, and the UFC still gets to promote him on the PPV and hopefully bask in an increased amount of PPV buys.

Putting Punk on the Fight Pass or Fox Sports 1 prelims for a PPV is a non-starter. This won’t happen. Sure, maybe Fox Sports 1 will get an influx of viewers for one prelim card, but that’s not going to help the UFC at the end of the day. The purpose of the televised prelims is to sell the PPV. If a casual fan tunes in for Punk’s fight on Fox Sports 1, they’re probably just going to shut the TV off or change the channel to something else after that. Yeah, FS1 will pop a nice rating and be able to beat their chests, but after that, nothing. At least if Punk is on the PPV, there’s a chance fans will tune into the prelims for an interview with him, or training clips, or what have you.

What about a Fox Sports 1 main card? This is also something I don’t think is too likely. The majority of these cards are held in smaller venues or overseas, as opposed to the larger arenas you usually see for PPV and Fox cards. What’s the point of using Punk on a card taking place in Broomfield, Colorado (no offense to the fine people of Broomfield) when you could use him in Vegas, or his hometown of Chicago, or Dallas, or LA, and also draw a bigger crowd?

That leads me to the one other possible scenario for Punk in the UFC – an appearance on one of the Fox broadcast channel cards. Ratings for these events were disappointing in 2014, and the UFC and Fox haven’t really been able to draw viewers like many of us expected. Throwing Punk on one of these cards, which haven’t really featured much in the way of interesting matchups since the first Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos fight three years ago, could result in a huge boost for the UFC in 2015.

There’s also a small problem in regards to Punk that not many people are talking about. In a fantastic interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, Punk said he wouldn’t be fighting for at least six months. That’s right – the big story of the MMA world is the signing of someone who won’t be competing until the summer at the earliest. All of this talk about how Punk will help pop buyrates and increase ratings? It’s kind of meaningless for the winter and the spring. By the time Punk’s fight is announced, all of this recency bias will be faded, and who knows what the landscape of MMA and other sports will look like then. Maybe Punk’s fight will be on the same night as a suddenly imposing college football game. Maybe something happens within the UFC to remove some of its luster. Maybe Punk keeps a low profile until the fight announcement, and it gets glossed over in the media.

What I’m essentially saying is that while there is clearly a lot that can go right for Punk and the UFC, we should pump the brakes a little bit. We’re just days removed from the announcement that he’s now a contracted UFC fighter. There’s a long way to go before he’s a success, a failure, a draw, or a bust.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

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