When it comes to the subject of Phil “CM Punk” Brooks competing in the UFC, current welterweight contender Matt Brown has a very definite opinion.
Ahead of his fight against Demian Maia at tonight’s UFC 198 pay-per-view event in Curitiba, Brazil, Brown spoke with The Fan Garage and the topic of Punk in the UFC came up.
“I didn’t criticize him for having his surgery if it was something necessary to do,” Brown said of Punk’s decision to postpone his UFC debut to get surgery. “I criticized him for the fact that he’s not a fighter. He doesn’t deserve to fight in the UFC with no fights.”
Brown continued, “I don’t believe he deserves to fight in the UFC based off the name he made in pro-wrestling and I think he’ll figure it out when he fights in the UFC, he’ll figure it out the hard way. Or he can listen to me and that’ll be the easy way to learn.”
Punk was scheduled to make his Octagon debut against Micky Gall, who earned the fight to become Punk’s debut opponent in the UFC when he defeated Mike Jackson on a UFC preliminary fight after calling out Punk on Dana White’s “Lookin’ For A Fight” reality show. Instead, he was forced to pull out of the bout, which was expected to go down at UFC 199 in June, because he needed to undergo an operation to repair an injury.
As things stand right now, there is no definitive timetable for Punk’s UFC debut. It is, however, still believed that he will be fighting Gall in his first Octagon appearance.