Silence is Golden

There’s a saying in the urban community, it’s called “go sit down somewhere”, this quote is applied to someone who is too busy for their own good and would do much better for themselves if they just chilled and focused on what they need to do. Sometimes less is more. This saying should be placed squarely on the shoulders of apparently 85 out of 100 ranked fighter CM Punk. MMA fans (and fans of pure sport in general) caused a social media backlash after discovering that in the new EA sports video game “UFC 2”, Phillip Jack Brooks (CM Punk) was given the same 85/100 ranking – the same ranking as recently retired veteran Martin Kampmann – disgraceful. Kampmann is a fan favorite that has given his blood (buckets of it in his case), sweat, and tears to give us the closest thing to a gladiator we’ll probably ever see. He has left it all in the octagon 27 times. Punk has worn expensive suits, tried to cut WWE promos on the UFC microphone, and made snarky quips at fans. Amount of time in the octagon? Zero. Not even an ameature fight. Punk then responded with the below mentioned tweet in his typical snarky fashion. https://twitter.com/CMPunk/status/686684082210738176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw I get it. It’s just a video game. They gave him that ranking because he’s popular and they want people to use him as he’s such a big draw. Pretty much the same way the UFC is using him. But the reason people are in such an uproar is because they see their sport going down a bad culture. The guys that were here before the Conor’s before the Rousey’s the people who actually care about the sport not just “sports entertainment”, the people who want the best fights not the biggest draws – these people see that this is just a metaphor for what’s going on in UFC as a whole. It’s all about the dolla dolla bills.   In an age where fighters (people who forego the 9-5 to kick a**), are being fined for being out of dress code, where Reebox is the new pimp, where the thinking is economic rather than for the pure sport – people are frustrated. First of all CM Punk is a gimmick. In which other professional sport do you get a contract and get a year to learn how to play? He’s simply there to draw revenue and Dana White wouldn’t even do us the dignity of lying to us about it. It’s a mockery of the sport.   With that being said – I believe Phillip Jack Brooks’s (CM Punk) intent is genuine. He seems like a pretty earnest and emotional guy who is truly trying to give it his all and test his limits as an athlete. It’s not him I blame for the situation it’s Dana. My problem with CM is his sassy remarks to the fans and social media. He has to understand that fans have every right to be mad, and though they shouldn’t be insulting him personally he has to expect the backlash and to a certain degree take it. In this case all CM Punk had to do was ignore the comments and ignore them. Better yet, train harder. He really has no bullets in the chamber – he’s in a sport that he’s essentially not support to be in – his best option is to keep his head down and prove the haters wrong in the octagon. I’m not a fan of CM Punk but that will make no difference when he steps in the cage. If he can scrap, he can scrap – I can respect that.