CM Punk is working toward his MMA debut, but according to one UFC fighter, perhaps he's not.
The "Best in the World" left the WWE in January 2014 and joined the MMA promotion last December, but he's yet to make his debut and he's pushed it back several times. Fellow UFC fighter Cathal Pendred doesn't believe his first foray into the Octagon will ever happen.
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"I said it recently, just seeing his more recent interviews around the UFC and stuff, I feel like he's not in it as much anymore," Pendred told Fox Sports. "I don't feel like his head is in it much anymore. Obviously, as he got deeper into the training and he got further down the line, he saw how much is involved in this and I think he realized he bit off more than he can chew."
After officially signing with the UFC following his departure from the WWE, Punk started training out of Roufusport in Milwaukee with his first announced goal for a debut being late 2015. As the months went on, the "Best in the World" then said he was setting his sights on early 2016.
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The former WWE Champion was then injured during practice, setting him back even further. Punk's coach Duke Roufus revealed he was injured in a scramble and is about 50 percent ready for his first fight. Roufus also said that there was no "hard date" for his debut inside the cage.
Pendred doesn't believe there ever will be.
"You can even see it now, when he first announced he was doing this he was at nearly every UFC in Vegas as a guest fighter doing the Q&A's and now he's nowhere to be seen. I do think he's kind of had a change of heart but the sad thing for him, the unfortunate thing for him is he said publicly he was going to do this. Unless he comes out and just buries his pride and says, 'Hey guys, I bit off more than I could chew, this is too much for me, I jumped in at the deep end and I can't swim.' We'll have to see. I wouldn't be surprised if he never fights."
There is a method to Pendred's madness, as there is no secret that he has beef with Punk. The two sparred on Twitter in August when Pendred called him out.
CM Punk on the pads making me look like Muhammad Alipic.twitter.com/o6HQ1PNkJA
— Cathal Pendred (@Pendred) August 11, 2015
Punk roared back with some very NSFW tweets, saying Pendred can't win "without a gift from the judges," while calling him a p---y. He later told him to "f--k off" and to stop putting audiences to sleep.
If Punk's UFC debut ever happens, there appears to be one obvious opponent for him.
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