When Phil “CM Punk” Brooks enters the UFC Octagon on Saturday night in Cleveland at UFC 203, he will become the fourth man in UFC history to fight inside the Octagon and in the professional wrestling ring for WWE, joining Ken Shamrock, Brock Lesnar and Dan Severn.
In a featured main card bout at UFC 203, Brooks will face Mickey Gall (2-0, 1-0 UFC) in a welterweight bout (170 pounds). Both of Gall’s pro victories have come by rear-naked choke submission.
Betting
Money in recent days has favored Brooks. On Monday, he was plus-400 (a winning $100 bet on him would produce $400 in winnings), but by Thursday morning it was down to plus-240. Gall has moved from minus-500 (a $500 bet would produce $100 in winnings) to minus-300.
UFC 203’s main card is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET.
History of wrestling-MMA crossovers
The lineage of athletes who have crossed over between professional wrestling and mixed martial arts began not with “The Beast Incarnate” in Lesnar, but with “The Beast” Dan Severn.
In 1994, Severn made his UFC debut as part of the UFC 4 Openweight Tournament, losing to Royce Gracie in the finals by triangle choke after almost 16 minutes of action. The next year, Severn defeated Chris Candido (known as Skip in the WWE) for the National Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Title as part of a Smoky Mountain Wrestling card.
Severn held the NWA title as he made his second UFC appearance at UFC 5 in April 1995, winning the tournament and moving on to the UFC’s first Superfight championship fight against Ken Shamrock at UFC 6. Severn lost that bout but won the rematch against Shamrock at UFC 9 in May 1996.
With that victory, Severn became the only man to simultaneously hold championships in MMA and pro wrestling, an accolade that he holds to this day.
One year later, in 1997, Shamrock made his WWE debut, but that was not his first wrestling appearance. Seven years earlier, he appeared as Wayne Shamrock for the Universal Wrestling Federation. Shamrock’s first major WWE storyline began at WrestleMania 13 when he was the special guest referee for the classic submission match between Bret “The Hitman” Hart and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, which later led to a feud against the Hitman’s stable, the Hart Foundation, in the middle of 1997.
Shamrock’s MMA background was heavily featured in his WWE style, leading to two matches against Owen Hart in a “Hart Family Dungeon” match, which Shamrock lost, and followed by a “Lion’s Den” match at the 1998 Summerslam. In Shamrock’s four-year WWE career, he won the King of the Ring, the Intercontinental Title and the Tag Team Titles.
He returned to MMA for the PRIDE organization in 2000 and then returned to the UFC in 2002 to fight Tito Ortiz for the UFC’s light heavyweight championship, continuing a feud that began three years earlier. In 2003, Shamrock was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame but continued his career inside the Octagon until 2006 before moving on to Bellator in 2015, losing to Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and fellow UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie in February 2016.
The most prominent crossover between MMA and professional wrestling belongs to Lesnar. After winning the NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship in 2000, Lesnar made his WWE debut in 2002, winning the WWE title from The Rock at Summerslam to become the youngest champion in company history at the time (25 years old). Lesnar left WWE in 2004 and headed to New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he became the IWGP heavyweight champion in 2005.
Lesnar then moved on to MMA full time in 2007, making his debut for the K-1 MMA organization Hero’s. Lesnar’s UFC debut came in 2008 against former champion Frank Mir at UFC 81, where he lost by kneebar.
Despite the loss, Lesnar rebounded to win against Heath Herring and then defeated Randy Couture to win the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 91, becoming the only man to win titles in college wrestling, professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
Lesnar left UFC in 2012 after a battle with diverticulitis and returned to WWE where he once again won the heavyweight title by defeating John Cena at Summerslam 2014. Lesnar has appeared for the WWE as recently as August at Summerslam, when he faced Randy Orton, but he stunned the MMA world when he returned to the Octagon for UFC 200, defeating Mark Hunt by unanimous decision.
Non-UFC crossovers
Bobby Lashley and Alberto Del Rio have also made the crossover, just not in the UFC.
Lashley, known for his Wrestlemania moment that included a cameo from Donald Trump and Vince McMahon getting his head shaved, wrestled in the WWE from 2004-08. He currently has a 14-2 record in Bellator, with a four fight win streak. He is also the current TNA world heavyweight champion.
Del Rio fought twice under Pride FC in 2003-04 and ended his MMA career in 2010 with an overall record of 9-5. The four-time WWE champion, wrestled between 2010-14 and 2015-16.