Phil “CM Punk” Brooks has advised his doubters to prepare for a “f--king fun and awesome” debut when he makes his UFC bow later this year.
The former WWE star’s first UFC fight has been put on hold because of injury problems, the most recent setback coming after he underwent back surgery in February, per MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. But speaking to Helwani on The MMA Hour, Punk had a message to those who doubt he’ll ever step foot in the cage, per Adam Guillen Jr. of Bloody Elbow:
I am going to fight, it's going to be this year. I see the doctor tomorrow and I am going to talk to him to see about other extracurricular activities I can do to kind of speed this along. See if I can do acupuncture again, things like that. …
Don't worry haters, I'm going to fight and it's going to be f--king fun and awesome and you are going to be real upset. I just don't want to say anything because I have learned my lesson. I have optimistic goals and we are just going to see if my back can cooperate with that.
Listen to Punk's interview in full, after 1 hour, eight minutes and 30 seconds. *Warning, expletive language used throughout*:
While not putting an exact timeline on when he will make his UFC debut, Punk revealed he wants a date at Madison Square Garden to be his second bout.
“In my mind, that card at the (Madison Square) Garden would be a nice second fight,” the 37-year old conceded. “But, I don't know how realistic that is because, again, I don't want to say things people are going to take to heart. And it's always the people that say they don't want to watch me fight. It's very strange.”
After mixed martial arts was made legal in the state of New York, the promotion is reportedly planning a show for November or December at the iconic sporting venue, according to MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi.
For Punk to have his second fight at what would be an historic show, he’d have to make his debut pretty quickly. As reported by Guillen Jr. the former professional wrestler seemed set to fight Mickey Gall in his first foray into the Octagon.
As Chamatkar Sandu of MMA Junkie noted, the UFC is confident enough of Punk appearing in the promotion that it included him in the most recent edition of its video game:
CM Punk has a rating of 82 in EA Sports UFC 2. pic.twitter.com/1RgEOPfbOm
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) March 3, 2016
The 37-year-old made his name in professional wrestling, where he was a seven-time world champion. In the WWE, one of Punk’s title reigns spanned 434 days, the longest of the modern era. He was a popular figure with fans.
In December 2014 Punk revealed he had agreed a multi-fight contract with the UFC, with his debut anticipated for 2015. However, the succession of injury problems have prevented him from showing what he’s capable of in MMA, casting doubts over whether or not we’ll ever see him in action inside the Octagon.
