CM Punk was expected to make his long-awaited Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut as early as this spring.
However, his first fight inside the Octagon was pushed back — yet again — after the former pro wrestler decided it was best to correct a herniated disk that had been hindering him for quite some time. And after undergoing successful surgery, Punk says he can start the healing process on the long road to the Octagon.
And though he doesn’t want to give a timetable for it, Punk tells his “haters” that he will fight in 2016 and it will be “fucking awesome.”
He broke it all down on a recent stop at The MMA Hour:
“I don’t know. 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 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. In my mind, that card at the (Madison Square) Garden would be a nice second fight. 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 fucking 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.”
Punk was supposed to face Mickey Gall for his Octagon debut. But with no exact timeline in place, Gall may very well run the risk of losing his winning lottery ticket should he choose to accept another fight in the interim and lose.
Punk’s been outspoken about his interest in fighting at UFC 200, but if that’s not possible, perhaps his name value would be well-served on a future UFC card at Madison Square Garden.
