Despite the fact that both the UFC and WWE have stated numerous times that they aren’t in competition with one another, it seems like there is at least one piece of news a week that links the two together.
This time, it’s WWE champion CM Punk seemingly taking at shot at UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones’ new endorsement deal with Nike via Twitter.
While we cant confirm CM Punk was referring to Jones specifically in his tweet, Jones is the only high-profile athlete that both recently got a DWI and major endorsement deal.
Let’s reward more drunk drivers with endorsement deals! #responsibility
— CM Punk (@CMPunk) August 9, 2012
This tweet is interesting for a number of reasons.
Punk has been one of the most vocal MMA supporters in the wrestling world over the last few years, doing several interviews with MMA journalist Ariel Helwani and filming Gracie ju-jitsu breakdowns for the legendary family’s YouTube channel.
At one point, he was even going to accompany Chael Sonnen to the cage for Sonnen’s UFC on Fox 2 fight in Punk’s hometown of Chicago, but it was ultimately shut down by Vince McMahon.
So while it may look odd that Punk would call out an athlete from a sport that he clearly loves and supports, when you look at Jones’ recent DWI charge, it becomes a lot easier to see where the WWE champion’s problem lies.
Punk’s TV persona promotes a straight-edge life style (meaning that he doesn’t do any drugs, drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes), and that attitude doesn’t change when the cameras come off.
Over the years, Punk has made it clear that his straight-edge persona is not an act, and he’s lived by that lifestyle off camera longer than he has on it.
If this tweet is indeed about the UFC champion, this isn’t another shot from the WWE hurled at the UFC like we saw a few weeks ago with Vince McMahon. This is CM Punk taking at shot at Jon Jones.
It’s obvious that Punk loves MMA and wants it to succeed, but if his beliefs cause him to disagree with Jones getting such a high-profile deal, that’s his prerogative.
A lot of people still haven’t quite forgiven Jones for his mistakes made last May, and the case may be made that CM Punk is one of those people.
We attempted to reach CM Punk on Twitter to confirm the quote was about Jones, but at the time of this post he had not yet responded.
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