Dana White confirms potential opponent for CM Punk debut

Over a year after officially signing with the UFC, it appears as if CM Punk may finally have a date, location and potential opponent for his first professional MMA fight: July 9th in Las Vegas at UFC 200.

The potential opponent is Mickey Gall, a 1-0 welterweight from New Jersey who is currently ranked at #63 on the list of northeastern United States welterweights on Tapology.com. At 5-11 and 23 years old, he will make his UFC debut at February 6th’s UFC 196 against Michael Jackson, who will be making his professional debut on the show. This clearly looks like a showcase fight for Gall, who has been told that should he win the fight, he’ll get the Punk match at UFC 200 in July.

Dana White appeared on TSN’s Off the Record with Michael Landsberg and confirmed all of this. He also confirmed that Ronda Rousey will not be fighting at UFC 200 but did speculate on who he’d like to see on the card. Landsberg brought up the possibility of GSP-Lawler and White said that would be awesome and also speculated that Anderson Silva could be a possible opponent for GSP, should he return.

The Gall-Jackson fight will be on the Fight Pass prelims of UFC 196. White also confirmed that Punk will be in attendance at the fight. 

Gall has been speculated as Punk’s potential opponent for the last week or so after being featured on Dana White’s Looking for a Fight YouTube series. He trains with the Gracie New Jersey Academy and fought in front of White at a regional show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia (the former ECW Arena in another pro wrestling tie-in).