Ever-Improving Mixed Martial Artist CM Punk Gets BJJ Blue Belt

David Dermer/Associated Press

Breaking news this week in the world of guys who are on the UFC roster but probably shouldn't be: Phil "CM Punk" Brooks is now a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Say whatever you want about the guy—and most in MMA have not been shy about doing just that—but never say he's not committed to his craft.

The story of Punk as a UFC star is old hat at this point.

He left the glamorous world of professional wrestling, where he was a champion and face of WWE, at the peak of his success.

He signed with the UFC in late 2014 despite having no formal athletic pedigree whatsoever, and a dubious martial arts pedigree founded on childhood karate and some drop-ins at the Gracie Academy.

Punk suffered a number of injury setbacks on his way to a 2016 debut against young gun Mickey Gall at UFC 203, a bout in which he was utterly mauled.

And still he keeps coming.

At 0-1 and with no amateur fights to his name, all Punk can do is keep grinding in the gym and hoping to improve enough to get himself another UFC fight. As recently as this past summer, word was floating around that he was hoping to fight again soon, and this most recent development supports that.

Famous pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross would routinely proclaim that a man had "more guts than brains" when entering the ring against impossible odds, and if you rolled back the tapes he may have even said it about Punk during his WWE tenure.

The devoted, oddly respectable insistence he now has of becoming as good a martial artist as he can as a relative neophyte at the tender age of 39 years old is proof of that.

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