WWE Superstar CM Punk is an unabashed MMA fan and always happens to show up at UFC broadcasts across the country. Once rumored to walk Chael Sonnen down the aisle in the UFC’s return to Chicago at UFC on Fox 2, Punk apparently walked out on his WWE contract and the rumor mill is spitting out that he might be pondering an MMA run.
He did tell Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting that his contract is up in July and that the longtime pro wrestling star may be pondering an MMA run.
Punk has been a longtime BJJ practitioner and trained in Muay Thai in his pre WWE run on the south side of Chicago and has openly discussed taking an MMA fight, as well as doing a season of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
So what is happening? Dave Meltzer provided some details in his Wrestling Observer Radio broadcast(subscription required):
“It’s funny that it took so long to come out because he did it right before Raw started. I guess the deal is he told Vince McMahon that he was going home and he went home. And they were not expecting that to happen. People had certainly expected that he was going to leave in July. They could see that it was coming, he was getting burned out, the signs were there. I had heard about it for quite a while that he was theoretically going to leave in July, but I always take that with a grain of salt because you know how many guys say ‘I’m retiring’ in pro wrestling and then when the day comes they don’t. It’s hard to walk away because there’s so much money.
“The thing with him is he’s very different from a lot of the guys in the sense that he saved his money, which is a big thing, and he didn’t need them, in his mind. I think that most of these guys… because a lot of these guys are frustrated, not all of them but a lot of them, but at the end of the day they don’t complain and they’re afraid to say anything. I don’t want to say he’s not afraid to say anything but he spoke his mind more than anyone else and he didn’t have a fear of being fired because if he’s fired, what’s going to happen? He’s going to have more free time and he’s going to be able to rest up his injuries, and he doesn’t have that financial concern.
…
“I have no idea what the straw was that broke the camel’s back in the last couple of days other than it happened. But it wasn’t one thing, that I can tell you. It’s been building up for a year, maybe a little less than a year maybe even more than a year. What I do know obviously is he wanted to be the top guy in the company and as long as John Cena was there it was not going to happen. He went heel when he was a very strong babyface because of the idea that he could be the number one heel. … Whatever it was, I can’t tell you more, I just know that he didn’t need it and the guy’s that don’t need it have a different mentality than the guy’s who need it.”
