According to CM Punk, his next fight may still be in the UFC’s Octagon, despite an abysmal performance in his debut earlier this year.
The former WWE superstar lasted just over two minutes in the cage with up and coming fighter Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in September before being submitted by rear-naked choke, but afterwards he vowed to continue his mixed martial arts journey.
At the time UFC president Dana White indicated that Punk “probably” wouldn’t fight again in the UFC, but based on conversations they’ve had since then, the wrestler believes he may still get a chance to redeem himself.
“I had a good conversation with him,” Punk told Ariel Helwani on this week’s MMA Hour show. “I told him ‘Hey, if you want to cut me, I get it. But I’m fighting, whether it’s for you or somebody else.’ Now, I don’t have an agent, I don’t have a manager. I’m like Bill Murray, just with a lot less money and not as funny or as famous. But I told him I want to fight again. We’re back at it, we’re back to the drawing board. It’s up to him. He floated me an idea and we’re kinda going back and forth on it right now. I’m at the point where I kind of want to get something on paper. You might hear an announcement in the coming weeks, I really don’t know. There’s no timetable on it.”
“I’m pretty confident it will be in the UFC,” the 38 year-old said.
It remains to be seen what the “idea” is that White suggested to him, but from the sounds of things that could be a spot on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.
TUF 25 begins filming in January and it’s known that the UFC are keen to make it an ‘all-star’ season featuring ex-UFC and TUF veterans, so CM Punk would add some star power and a human interest story to the proceedings.
The downside to that is he would be going up against experienced fighters, whereas it seems from the limited fight footage we’ve seen from him so far that he’d be better of starting at the very bottom rung of the ladder.
