Ahead of his highly anticipated MMA debut against Mickey Gall Saturday at UFC 203, CM Punk discussed his development as a fighter and his past as a WWE Superstar in The Players’ Tribune.
Punk said that the process of going from WWE Superstar to UFC competitor has been rapid and rife with criticism, but he is at peace with the progress he has made:
This experience has been a little different from that because my learning curve has been pretty extreme. I was competing against the clock. Things had to be accelerated. So I started sparring before I should have. I started doing a lot of things before I was ready. But to me, that’s how you get ready. It’s just a matter of wrapping my hands, putting my gloves on and learning.
There are a lot of steps between where you start and where you end up—I get that. But I’m comfortable going through the process. And for that reason, I’m really not worried about how the public views what I’m doing right now. I’m fine letting people see me train. I can let them make fun of me. I can let them think that I’m embarrassed about my progress. None of it matters because the truth is I’m not embarrassed at all. I’m comfortable with accepting what other people think about me, because I know myself. And I know that I’m always getting better. For me, the ends justify the means.
Punk went from being one of the best all-around professional wrestlers in the world to the bottom of the totem pole on the MMA scene.
Despite that, he made it clear he is happy with his decision due to the fact it allows him to experience other things in life that weren’t possible in WWE:
The truth is I don’t miss being CM Punk as much as I used to miss being me.
For a long time, the demands of my schedule as a professional wrestler forced me to prioritize my job over everything else in my life. My family, my health and my own ambitions had to be placed on the backburner. I gave everything I had to the job. But my time as a professional wrestler didn’t just end—it reached a conclusion. I achieved everything I wanted to in that arena, even beyond what I ever dreamed was possible. I had thought about trying something else for a long time before I actually made the move to MMA. And now that I’ve done it, I know I’ll never look back.
The WWE schedule is among the most grueling in all of sports or entertainment since it calls for performers to be on the road for the majority of the year.
Punk no longer has to deal with that, and it is a significant weight lifted off his shoulders:
Now my days aren’t consumed by constant TV and radio hits. I’m not in a different time zone every day, and I no longer have to make desperate searches for healthy food options near whatever motel I am staying at in Scranton. I sleep in my own bed every night for more than three hours, I wake up, kiss my wife and then walk my dog around the block before going to the gym to get better at something I’m passionate about.
Now I’m just a guy living his life, which is something I could never be as CM Punk, WWE star.
Even if Punk pulls off the upset and defeats Gall, the chances of him reaching the top of his new profession like he did as a wrestler are long.
He is 37 years of age, his experience is limited, and one can only assume that years of the WWE grind took a toll on his body.
Punk wants to be successful within the UFC, but regardless of how he fares in the Octagon Saturday and moving forward, he appears happy in his new line of work, which is something that wasn’t always the case in WWE despite how big of a star he was.
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