The Heat and the Shine

CM Punk's journey to UFC Fighter is complete. At UFC 203, he made the walk. He stepped in the cage. To borrow a memorable Arn Anderson promo, he said what he was going to do and then he did it. In many eyes, that was a win. The cynical might ask, "A win for who?". It is a fair question. Victory, after all, is in the eyes of the beholder. Punk surely won. The world can debate his level of self-awareness, but most agree on this: he lives to prove people wrong. 'Fake' wrestlers don't step in the Octagon, and he did. For others, victory is less clear. Wrestlers, fighters, fans, announcers; they hold opinions across a broad spectrum. Some love the effort, some hate the spectacle and many carry ambivalence on those very topics. "What harm was done?" is a common refrain from supporters of this and other spectacles. The injured party can be summed up in a single word: excellence. That concept, which drives so many admirable parts of Western civiliza

Critics of UFC's decision to sign CM Punk are in an unassailable position.  They are right.  Signing CM Punk would be similar to a Major League Baseball team signing Nelly.  Punk's signing does alienate fighters; especially those on the border of UFC and the lessor fight promotions.  The move is -- at least in part -- a publicity stunt.  There is no way to counter these arguments.  Calling Punk's ESPN "car wash" a PR win is pointless to someone who wants to watch great fights.  Supposing that Punk's first pay-per-view will draw a great buyrate matters not to someone who's had to argue whether MMA is a real sport.  UFC decision makers have hurt the public's ability to accept MMA as a sport.  The detractors have that argument won. All is not lost, however.  UFC and CM Punk can still make the best of things.  They can still make a lot of money in the short term (the short-term money argument, of course, is the argument that proponents of Punk's signin