(Props: Zombie Prophet)
Serious question: Are you guys tired of hearing about CM Punk already? The former WWE superstar (known to his momma as Phil Brooks) has a long road of training ahead of him before he makes his UFC debut sometime next year, but he’s been keeping his name in the streets with some media appearances here and there. Yesterday, he visited the ESPN studios to cut promos — or “interviews,” whatever — for SportsCenter and MMA Live. Some notable quotes from the SC spot…
– “Am I ready [to fight] today? I mean, probably not, but I’d fight anybody right now. Whether that’s a smart decision or not remains to be seen…I used to not be able to walk or swim, and I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but I’m gonna get there, and I’m excited to climb that mountain.”
– “I’m comfortable on the ground. Whether I get taken down and I’m on my back, I’m confident in my ability to stand back up, I’m confident in my jiu-jitsu, and it’s only gonna get better from now until the day I fight.”
– In response to Matt Brown’s recent criticism of his UFC signing: “There’s probably a lot of fighters that are…they’re just upset. And I can understand that, and more power to you, I understand your point of view. My job is to do what’s good for me and my family, and along the way if I change your mind, Matt Brown, awesome.”
– On Vince McMahon and Dana White: “They’re both driven, they’re both set in their ways, they both have an idea of what is best for their company, and everything like that, and I think that’s how they’re the same. How they’re different, I think, is the difference in the generation. Vince is very old-school, Dana is more open-minded, there’s more of a warmth on the UFC side that I’m experiencing. And Dana’s more open-minded, obviously — he hired me.”
– “Listen, there’s always people throughout my entire life who have told me that I can’t do something. Nobody ever thought I would make it to the WWE, nobody ever thought I’d be the champion. And nobody ever thought I’d be in the UFC…and I very much use the negativity that comes my way to fuel me, to prove people wrong.”
The MMA Live video is after the jump.
– On the timing of his UFC debut: “We’re saying 2015, which is very vague, but that’s kind of how we want to keep it right now. It’s 100% up to me when I feel like I’m as ready as I’m gonna get, without pushing it to 2016. So it’ll probably be at the earliest fall, at the latest sometime around this time next year.”
– On Brock Lesnar: “Brock’s a lot like me in the respect that he doesn’t care what people think of him…the whole attitude of, ‘Yeah, I get it, you’re mad that I’m here, you’re upset, I haven’t earned the UFC fight yet,” but my goal is to prove everybody wrong, and I think that was Brock’s mentality too.”
– On where he’d like to train: “I want to train with the best. I need a comfortable, but not comfortable environment, if that makes any sense to anybody out there. Staying close to home is also important, but I’m also willing to uproot everything and move, too. So again, vague answer. Up in the air.”
– On his UFC debut: “I think the pressure will be monumental, but it’s nothing I haven’t experienced before…I think those jitters will be there, but they will be substantially less than somebody who’s never performed in front of almost 90,000 people at one time. I’ll be able to handle and manage the crowd better than most people making their UFC debut.
– On luck: “Luck’s for losers, Phil.”