Ah you and you're healthy Punk threads
I don't see logic in these arguments. Punk fought guys who were actual fighters. Rocks not a fighter or a black belt etc.
It's akin to putting Rock starting in the NFL now and laughing he isn't as the same level of the bench guys there. Reality is Rock would clown Punk in a game of football because he spent years playing the game.
Aside from Mickey Gall, Punk lost to a guy with the exact same record in MMA he had, a photographer who tested positive for weed use in his fight with Punk. And it wasn't an even fight, it was domination to the point were the guy was actually dancing atop of Punk during the fight when he could've finished it in the first round easily. This led to Dana White firing him post match because he was clowning and let it stretch far too long
Punk's training camp got heavily criticized by MMA heads like Rogan, that this wasn't a legit fighter's training methods and that the team&coaches treated him so delicately, that it was an amateur's training regiment and not someone in the big leagues.
I don't blame Punk for not winning, however you have to question his mindset when someone in his age and history of long injuries decides to go into pro-MMA at that stage of his career, using his brand-name and stardom to waltz himself into the UFC main card, not only that but being so full of himself and trash talking his first opponent.
People talk about The Rock having an ego, at least Rock's ego doesn't make him delusional to go off the extreme like that. Rock is currently training in MMA but I doubt he'd believe that his training would get in the UFC title pic
Also, this is irrelevant to the topic but I have to bring it up in these wrestlers vs fighters discussions because it must be said.. there's weight classes in MMA for a reason. This is an extreme example but a lightweight or featherweight MMA fighter has no chance against a strongman with no prior MMA record like say Brian Shaw or Eddie Hall, for the mere reason that one of the latter could easily out-power him out of any hold, snatch him, and slam him to the ground with full force. No matter how experienced you get, there's too much power and body mass that one can't get around.
Antonio Nogueira, in his prime, broke his neck fighting Bob Sapp because Sapp outweighed him by 60kg, and Sapp piledrivered him hard on the canvas. Big Nog won, because he's a f'n beast and a legend, but a lesser fighter would've easily called it quits after that.
