After all, here was a man, a former WWE superstar, who put himself on the line to achieve a dream, a fight in the UFC's octagon.

That takes an enormous amount of courage for anyone, let alone someone like Punk who, prior to late 2014, had no combat sports experience.

Professional wrestlers are tough, no doubt, but without a fundamental skillset like the NCAA wrestling experience of Brock Lesnar, they are like every average joe inside the octagon who thought they'd at least have a shot at this MMA business.

Unlike these average joes, CM Punk is a millionaire with star power. He brings a crossover audience, and at the end of the day even if he fails, he's still going to be a millionaire.

Let's be realistic though. CM Punk doesn't belong in the Octagon. Even with a year-and-a-half of training under the inscrutable Duke Roufus and his team at Roufusport, he had no business being in the Octagon with Mickey Gall.

Gall tore straight through him, putting the 37-year-old on his back, passing his guard effortlessly before choking him out.

It was akin to watching a toddler fight a teenager, and in MMA terms that's not hyperbole, that's a fact. Gall is still young in the sport but Punk, older by 13 years, is much, much younger.

After the fight, Punk said this was not a one-off, that he'd be back to fight again.

That's all good and well, but who could he possibly fight?

It's a problem the UFC possibly didn't take into account.

Gall is a talented kid, no doubt. But he's won two amateur fights and now three professional fights against fighters with a combined record of 5-12.

He's not some giant of the sport and he's not the next big thing, at least yet. He could be, perhaps, when he fights an opponent with any level of experience.

At the moment, however, he's a solid young fighter with a very good Brazilian jiu jitsu game. His callout of Sage Northcutt makes sense. They're both very green prospects, but they could be anything.

As for CM Punk, he doesn't have the tools to beat a single fighter in the welterweight division of the UFC. It was ridiculous to think he might, after a year-and-a-half of training. There is not one other fighter that could make their UFC debut with a record of 0-0, or 0-1 as the case may be, so there is literally no one for Punk to fight.

He will be back ... but don't expect it to go any differently, unless he comes back as an amateur on a regional show. He doesn't belong in the UFC, and it's time for the UFC to recognise that and make a hard call.

In the main event of UFC 203, Cleveland's heavyweight title holder Stipe Miocic defended his belt for the first time, defeating former K1, Strikeforce and Dream heavyweight title holder Alastair Overeem in one of the most action-packed one-round fights in recent memory.

With the win, Miocic will likely face former two-time champion Cain Velasquez, who will look to become just the second man, after UFC hall of famer Randy Couture, to claim the heavyweight title three times.