On Wednesday night, he appeared live on Fox Sports 1 to talk more about it. He admitted that he has very little sparring, which is the weakest part of his game, and isn’t sure what belt he has in Brazilian jiu-jitsu because he has trained so infrequently with Rener Gracie.
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Punk understands that puts an even larger target on his back for detractors to zero in on. But that’s not stopping him from trying something that he realized he may fail at.
Yes, you heard that last part right — Punk did in fact have an ‘accident’ in the ring during a match against Dean Ambrose on Smackdown last year. He also brought this story up on his now infamous appearance on the Art of Wrestling podcast, attributing it to all the antibiotics he was on at the time.
During the Fox appearance, Punk went so far to say that he may not even deserve a shot in the UFC.
With comments like those, you can imagine how many people have begged Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva that they want to be Punk’s first opponent in the Octagon. To some, it looks like easily pickings but UFC won’t — and really can’t — put him in a fight against a veteran fighter who he would be totally mismatched against.
Punk knows his celebrity is why he is getting that opportunity and he simply doesn’t care what other people think. But the hard part will be satisfying himseld and shutting other up by having an impressive performance once he does get in the cage.
When that happens, his weight class and even what camp he trains with going forward remain to be seen.
Brian Fritz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrianFritz and listen to his Between The Ropes podcast on Blog Talk Radio.
