CM Punk responds to critics who say he got millions to get beat up in UFC. The former WWE Champion had a shortlived UFC career.
CM Punk’s career can be divided into two halves. One that saw him became one of the biggest names in wrestling. Some would argue he was on par with John Cena for a little while. The other was when he went to UFC and failed to live up to his hype.
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In a recent interview with Renee Paquette, the voice of the voiceless revealed that he actually wanted to get into MMA all the way back in 2010 itself. However, he wasn’t a big enough name to command a lot of money at the time.
“I had planned on leaving when my deal was up at the end of 2010 or 2011,” he said. “That was kind of my plan because I always thought if I was going to train, it was never just going to be a hobby for me. So, the idea was, I was going to leave.
“I needed time off anyway, but I would just devote a lot of time to full-time training. At that time, I wasn’t a big enough name where somebody was just going to be like, ‘Hey, it’s a spectacle. It’s a freak show. Everyone wants to watch you fight.’ So, I was just going to do it… ‘the right way.’ I was going to train. I was going to do amateur fights. I was just going to take my life in a different direction just because I wanted to do it.”
CM Punk responds to critics who say he got millions to get beat up in UFC
He eventually established himself in wrestling. However, he still harbored MMA dreams. Unfortunately, the WWE’s gruelling schedule hindered him from doing so. By the time he left the WWE, he finally had a big enough name to fight in the UFC and the time to train.
As Punk admits himself, he was unfortunately too old by then though. He failed to live up to the hype surrounding him and came out with a 2-0 loss record. Regardless of his performance though, Punk believes that his run in the UFC, the money he earned and the people who came to see him were rewards for all the good work he had done before that.
“I think a lot of people out there who are critical of me and the performances will say, ‘Oh, I’ll get beat up for a million dollars,’ but my retort to that was always, ‘Do the work that I did to get to the point where somebody would offer you that kind of money because there would be an audience to see you fight,’” Punk told Paquette. “73 Twitter followers doesn’t equate to a million-dollar payday to fight. But like I said, everybody’s path’s different. And then I guess I got a little hot there at the end of my run in WWE. I was faced with an opportunity.”
“It was re-signed for three more years even though I was already shot. I was already pretty mentally and physically exhausted, and I obviously re-signed, and then that kind of delayed everything for another three years. The idea was, ‘Let’s do this before you get too old.’ God d**n it, turns out I was too old.”
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