Anthony Pettis on new teammate CM Punk: 'He's going to do great in the sport'

Phil “CM Punk” Brooks

Just about everyone in MMA has sounded off with an opinion on Phil Brooks in the past five weeks.

Now one of the new teammates of “CM Punk” has weighed in on the former WWE wrestler’s entry into the world of mixed martial arts.

UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, a mainstay at the Duke Roufus-led Roufusport team in Milwaukee, believes his new teammate might just have what it takes to have some success – once he finally gets rolling.

CM Punk was announced in December as the UFC’s latest signee – though he doesn’t have any professional MMA experience. Opinions have ranged from cautiously optimistic to essentially outrage over his shot at the world’s biggest promotion without having to prove himself elsewhere.

But Pettis said at Roufusport, he’ll be taking it slow, honing his all-around skills to make sure he’s ready – whenever that time may be.

“He hasn’t trained with the team yet,” Pettis told MMAjunkie. “He’s doing private lessons with Duke and my jiu-jitsu coach. We don’t want to scare him away. But I’m not discrediting him because he’s definitely a great athlete. It’s just when it comes to MMA you’ve got to put it all together. His striking is going to need some improvement. His jiu-jitsu is getting improvement. He’s going to get improvement everywhere with the team, but we just want to take it slow, and he agrees.”

Pettis, who in December defended his 155-pound title with a second-round submission of Gilbert Melendez, said CM Punk’s star power outside the MMA world, as one of the most successful superstars in WWE history, didn’t play a factor when he came to Milwaukee.

“That’s the cool thing about him,” Pettis said. “He said, ‘I’m not coming in with any ego. I want you to tell me when I’m ready. And when you guys think I’m ready, that’s when I’m ready.’ That shows me that he’s going to do great in the sport.

“Knowing the following he has, he’s very modest. He is a very cool guy. He’s down to earth, and he didn’t come in with an ego at all into the gym. I think we have a great relationship right away. He’s asking questions and advice on training. He wants to do it, so that’s great. The first step is wanting to do it, and now he’s putting it all together.”

CM Punk recently said he expects to be midway through 2015 before he makes an official decision on what weight class he’ll compete in – either welterweight or middleweight. And then he and the Roufusport coaches can start thinking about potential opponents.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.