Phil “CM Punk” Brooks’ Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) stint will always be remembered … for the wrong reasons.
The former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion entered mixed martial arts (MMA) and UFC as a complete novice in late 2014. Brooks eventually debuted opposite Mickey Gall in a Welterweight match up at UFC 203 in September 2016. Unfortunately for “The Voice of the Voiceless,” he lost just over two minutes when Gall sunk in a rear-naked choke.
Punk followed up his debut with another tough outing against Mike Jackson in his hometown of Chicago, Ill., at UFC 225 two years later. At the time, Brooks was embroiled in a legal battle with a fellow professional wrestler, Scott “Colt Cabana” Colton, which made the occasion all the tougher. Jackson defeated Brooks via a unanimous decision before the result was later overturned to a no contest when Jackson tested positive for marijuana.
“I asked my wife the other day because I said something, I was just like, ‘What was I, 35 when I fought?’” Brooks said on The MMA Hour. “And she was just like, ‘Oh no, you were 36 or 37.’ I just went, ‘What the f—k was I thinking?’
“I’m glad I did it,” he continued, speaking about his Jackson fight. “Zero regrets. I shouldn’t have fought in Chicago, because of the worst two weeks of my life. Easily the worst two weeks of my life. I couldn’t cut weight properly. I still made weight. I’m proud of myself for that. I’m an ambitious guy.”
Now that he’s back in professional wrestling and WWE, Brooks believes everything came around nicely. Hate him all you want, the ambition counts for something in Punk’s book.
“I get it, it’s easy to ‘LOL’ and make fun of me,” Brooks said. “Some people look at that and be like, ‘That’s embarrassing.’
“I f—king made the weight. I made the walk,” he concluded. “I am 100 percent proud of myself, and I would do it again, because that was me at my absolute worst, and I did it. You want to call me a loser, that’s cool, but I was stoked I got that opportunity, and I was stoked I did it.”