Oh, how times flies. It seems like just yesterday that the UFC announced it had signed CM Punk, with the small caveat that he wouldn’t make his debut until he’d, ya know, actually learned how to fight. But it wasn’t yesterday … all that went down back in December of 2014. Realistic estimates had his debut pegged at some time in summer 2016, but persistent back problems have thrown that into question. Even Punk himself isn’t sure exactly when he’ll debut.
“I don’t know,” Punk told Ariel Helwani on the latest episode of The MMA Hour. “I have learned from my past mistakes and I am not going to say a date that everyone is going to get married to and then I am going to have to hear how I am never going to fight. I am going to fight, it’s going to be this year.”
“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.”
As far as those optimistic goals go, he’d like to fight twice in 2016.
“In my mind, that card at [Madison Square] Garden would be a nice second fight,” he said. “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.
“Don’t worry, haters, I’m going to fight and it’s going to be f*cking fun and awesome and you are going to be real upset!”