While teammate Pettis is unsure of what the UFC plans for CM Punk (aka Phil Brooks), he reveals the pro wrestling star is still in the gym training day after day.
At 0-2 in his MMA career, former pro wrestling and WWE superstar CM Punk is still officially a UFC fighter. Whether that’s because they intend to give him another fight or so he doesn’t fight anywhere else is unclear. But there he is, on the UFC website, still listed as a UFC fighter.
There’s some speculation that he could end up on the June 8th UFC 238 card in his hometown of Chicago. That’s where his last fight at UFC 225 in June of 2018 was held — a 30-26×3 decision loss to Mike Jackson. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but in a conversation with TMZ Sports, Anthony Pettis confirmed Punk (real name Phil Brooks) is still busting his ass at Roufusport MMA Academy, and for that he has Anthony’s respect.
”CM Punk is still there,” Pettis said. “He’s doing more of the jiu jitsu, the rolling. The time that he should have spent getting ready to fight is what he’s doing now. They put a lot of pressure on him. They made him come over with no experience and fight on the biggest stage. I don’t know anybody that could do that. Not even some young kids.”
They?
”Yeah, he is still training. I don’t know what his plan is. I know he’s doing some movies and a couple other things, but I don’t know if he plans on fighting again or what. But he’s still training. He’s in the gym. That dude’s a hard worker.”
”Not many people could do what he did,” Pettis concluded. “It’s on the biggest stage. He fought some good guys, too. It’s not like he’s fighting scrubs. He fought some good guys in the UFC. And he’s training with killers. He’s training with me, [Tyron] Woodley. He comes in day after day, and he’s getting his butt kicked, but he keeps coming back and showing up. I give him props no matter what. He did it.”
UFC president Dana White has mentioned UFC fighter contracts include a clause that requires the UFC to offer its fighters a certain number of fights per year. We have no doubt CM Punk’s contract is probably structured very differently than your typical UFC fighter, but it’s not inconceivable that they may have to offer him something in 2019 if they want to keep him under contract.
Who he’d fight is the real interesting question. Would the UFC finally let their freakshow flag fly and find another celebrity with limited MMA experience to face him, or is Punk just going to keep getting punked by the rawest greenhorn in the organization?