CM Punk on transition into MMA, timetable for first fight, training with Anthony Pettis
By Matt Trebby. CREATED 9:56 PM
From 1999 to early 2014, CM Punk was a professional wrestler.
Now, he's a mixed martial artist training in the Milwaukee area. After his exit from WWE last year, Punk took time off and largely dropped out of the public's eye.
In November of 2014, he broke his silence on his friend Colt Cabana's "Art of Wrestling" podcast, where he gave great detail into what led to his retirement from wrestling. The next month saw him sign a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the largest MMA promotion in the world.
“I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody this," Punk told Lance Allan in an exclusive interview on TODAY'S TMJ4. "If you watch NASCAR and you want to race in NASCAR, but you give yourself every excuse why in the world not to do it. I have a 9 to 5 job, a wife, kids, I can’t afford it. Too expensive. And then you eliminate all that and just go after what you want to go after. That’s just something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Punk has training experience in Brazilian jiujitsu with Rener Gracie, but not much more in MMA. He has never participated in an MMA fight before, and his signing was a way for UFC to boost its future pay-per-view numbers.
The former multi-time WWE Champion lives in Chicago with his wife, but said he wanted to train with the best for him. He said he would've gone anywhere in the country for the best training.
Fortunately for him, the best place is just 90 minutes from his house in Milwaukee. Punk trains at Roufusport MMA Academy, run by former MMA great Duke Roufus. There he trains with multiple current stars in the sport, most notably UFC Lightweight Champion and Milwaukee native Austin Pettis. He could have gone anywhere in the world to train, but chose Roufusport.
"I think everybody who runs most of the camps are wise to the fact that (me competing in UFC) is good for the sport," Punk said. "If I thought I would've been sacrificing quality by coming here, just because it's 90 minutes away, I would've gone somewhere else."
While Punk has trained in MMA before, he believes it's more beneficial that he entered Roufusport as a "clean slate."
"In some ways, it's helped me the little I do know," Punk said. "I think the large quantity of what I don't know is actually my biggest attribute. They don't have to reteach me, relearn me, get rid of bad habits. My biggest asset is that I don't care. Just mold me. It's very much that relationship."
The unfamiliarity with a lot of MMA could intimidate some, especially when their first fight is going to be in the best promotion in the world. Punk isn't treating it like that, though.
"I'm not letting what I don't know preventing me from any life experience," Punk said. "I'm not going to stop myself from going to a foreign country because I don't know the language. It's very much like that. I've packed my bags and I've gone to Japan without knowing anybody or speaking the language."
Pettis won the UFC Lightweight Championship back in August of 2013 at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. He's one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, and someone Punk tries to learn from every day.
"Everything," Punk said. "I look at him kind of how I looked at myself the tail end of my wrestling career. He's a leader, but he leads by example."
Former Arrowhead and Olympic wrestler Ben Askren also trains at Roufusport. Askren has a 14-0 professional MMA record, and is considered one of the best fighters in the world not in the UFC. Many have called for Askren to be hired by the promotion, but he is currently under contract with ONE Fight Championship. He is the Welterweight Champion there, a title he also held for Bellator before leaving the promotion.
Punk said he spoke with Askren right when he started at Roufusport about being in UFC with no fighting experience while Askren isn't.
"I absolutely agreed with him," Punk said. "It didn't make any sense. But me and Ben talked about it and we're absolutely on the same page. I was offered something I would be a fool to say no to."
Someone else with no experience that made the transition from WWE to UFC is Brock Lesnar. The current WWE World Heavyweight Champion was a national champion in wrestling at the University of Minnesota, before going to WWE. In 2004, Lesnar left pro wrestling to pursue a career in the NFL. After that, he joined UFC and became their Heavyweight Champion.
Lesnar and Punk are friends, having wrestled each other in WWE back in the summer of 2013. As a new fighter, Punk said Lesnar has made himself a resource if necessary.
"I've talked to him and he's offered all his help, even if it's just bug him with a stupid question. It's cool to know he supports me. He's a good guy to know, I think."
When asked if there was anything he can take away from pro wrestling that can help him in UFC, Punk said the two are quite similar.
"I think MMA is pro wrestling," Punk said. "If you go back to the early 1900's and the whole genesis of professional wrestling, and then you go back to the early beginnings of MMA, it was all pro wrestlers."
Punk noted that without the media and attractions surrounding MMA, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.
"The characters, the action, the media, the mouths," Punk added. "There's a reason people are interested in this, whether it's good or it's bad, whether they love me or they hate me."
He said when it's necessary, he'll still be able to deliver on a microphone and sell a fight as he did in WWE.
But when will that fight be for Punk?
"I'm not sure," Punk said. "My attitude is I'd fight tomorrow, but I'd pretty much know the outcome. I'm on an accelerated path. This is college and I'm cramming four years of college into one year."
Punk gave a bit of a timeline for the timetable that will determine when he enters the octagon in UFC for the first time.
"I've been here a little over one month now," Punk said. "Five more months we're going to sit down and we're going to talk, and we're going to see where my weight's at, we're going to see how I feel. It's no longer just up to me. It's up to my coaches."
"This is just a guess, October, November, December," Punk added. "But we'll see. I'm fully aware it could be later than that, could be earlier than that."
Finally, when asked whether he could se
"I don't think about it at all," Punk said. "I don't want to say one track minded, I'm very focused and goal-oriented. I did everything I could in pro wrestling. I don't like going backwards. I have, what I think is, a very bright future."
Link includes video:
www.jrn.com/tmj4/wi-sports/CM-Punk-Lance-Allan-UFC-WWE-first-fight-291932231.html
