For more than a year after the former WWE champion and pro-wrestling folk hero CM Punk signed his contract to fight with the UFC, fans were left guessing who his first opponent would be. Up-and-comer Mickey Gall would go on to get the match, and force Punk to tap out in the first round of their fight. But of all the names that were floated in the run up to Punk’s debut, Jason David Frank was both the oddest and maybe the most appropriate. Frank is best known as Tommy Oliver, the original Green Ranger from the first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, and since his run on TV ended, he’s put those Putty-fighting skills—and his seventh-degree black belt—to work in several amateur MMA fights and one professional bout, all of which he won. When Punk’s UFC signing was first announced, Frank came out and challenged the wrestler turned comic-book author, but he was summarily laughed off.
Despite his whooping, Punk is reportedly trying his damnedest to get a second professional fight, whether in UFC or elsewhere. And that tenacious Green Ranger is still right there, ready to go. In a recent interview on the Primo Nutmeg podcast, Frank once again brought up his hope to meet Punk in the octagon. “If Punk fights again, everybody at the base, everybody that owns UFC wants me to fight him,” he said. “If he fights again, that’s definitely something I would like to do.” Frank says he isn’t motivated by the big money a fight with Punk would draw, nor does he have some sort of personal vendetta against him. He’d even do the fight for a dollar, if that would help make it happen. “I like the guy, I like CM Punk,” he said. “I’d just like to show the world who is the best in the world and that’s why he and me should fight, to see who’s the best in the world.”