It took nearly two years from the time the UFC announced they’d signed retired pro wrestling legend CM Punk before he finally had his first fight with the organization. During that time, a lot of speculation went down amongst fans on just how capable he’d be of handling the level of competition offered by the biggest and best mixed martial arts league in the world. Could CM Punk somehow manage to pull off this insane sudden career change?
It turns out, of course, that he couldn’t. Not even with the UFC booking him against an opponent brought up to the majors specifically to fight him. That man, Mickey Gall, promptly hit Punk with a double leg takedown, forced him to give up his back with strikes, and then submitted him with a rear naked choke. The whole thing lasted just over two minutes and Punk didn’t manage to land a single punch.
Since then there have been two big questions: will CM Punk continue to fight? And if he does, will it be in the UFC? Punk made it clear that he was sticking with mixed martial arts whether the UFC wanted him or not. Immediately after the first fight, UFC president Dana White seemed to be siding with “not,” but then the PPV numbers for the fight came out and made his decision much harder.
It’s now been five months since Punk’s last fight, and he’s now looking for another. FOX Sports On The Buzzer caught up with him at the NHL All Stars Weekend and here’s what he told them.
“I’m working on it feverishly,” Punk said. “I’m throwing names at Dana … opponents, dates. I don’t know if he’s waiting for a Chicago show or what the deal is but if it doesn’t happen in the UFC, it will happen somewhere else. I’m dedicated to fighting and training so we’ll get there.”
With the new UFC owners having some pretty significant bank payments to make on the $4.3 billion loan they took out to buy the organization, they need every needle-mover on the roster they’ve got. So we wouldn’t be surprised to see Punk back in the Octagon … the only question is against who?
