CM Punk ‘Can’t Wait’ For UFC 203 To Be Over
Former WWE star CM Punk is just less than two weeks away from making his highly-anticipated mixed martial arts (MMA) debut, when he takes on young up-and-coming welterweight prospect Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in Cleveland.
Punk spoke to the media shortly after one of his training sessions at the Duke Roufus gym in Milwaukee that he now calls home, courtesy of MMA Junkie, and was adamant in the fact that he is prepared to go in to the toughest test he has ever had to face in his entire life of professional sports:
“This will be misconstrued as a quote if you’re just reading it, but I very much have a ‘I can’t wait till it’s over feeling,’” Punk said.
“I want to get it over with because I’m ready – I feel ready. Being here every day for five hours a day has made me feel that way. It feels nice, like a relief.
There’s a calm – I’m excited, a little bit of nervous energy. But it’s all positive.
While Punk doesn’t know what the expectations are for himself in the eye of the public, he knows that for him and his team he expects to emerge victorious come fight night, as they are the ones who see him put in the work day in and day out in preparation for Gall:
I don’t know what the expectations are,” Punk said. “I know what my expectations are. I know what my team and my coach – what they expect out of me.
I think it depends on what corner of the media or the Internet you look at to see what the expectations are. People expect me to get knocked out.
People expect me to get starched in 30 seconds. The people who see me work here every day expect me to win.”
Punk’s teammate, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis, also chimed in on ‘The Cult of Personality’s’ upcoming contest against Gall, stating that nothing he has done in the WWE will help him once the Octagon door closes on him come September 10th:
“None of the (pro) wrestling, none of the talking, none of that stuff is going to help him in the octagon,” Pettis said. “Hype is good, cameras are good – but once that door closes, it’s all about what he did the last two years training with us.
He’s gotten a lot better. When he came in here, he wasn’t ready for a UFC fight. … He got with the right people. Tyron Woodley, the (UFC) 170-pound champ, trains with these guys right here. These guys are some beasts, and he’s out here holding his own.”
When it’s all said and done after his collision with Gall come UFC 203, Punk expects he will have then silenced all of his doubters by etching a permanent ‘W’ into the win column of his young MMA career:
“My expectations are to win – go out there, whether it goes three rounds, whether it goes three seconds, that’s what I expect,” he said. “I expect to show up in the best shape of my life, happiest I’ve ever been, and happy looking in the mirror before the fight knowing: ‘Job well done.’”
Punk and Gall will meet on the main card of UFC 203 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on September 10, 2016.
You can check out a video of one of Punk’s latest training sessions here:
