The wrestling world has been buzzing ever since former WWE Superstar CM Punk announced that he is taking his talents in the squared circle to the octagon at UFC 181 and the "Best in the World" recently discussed his MMA skills, Vince McMahon and more.
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Punk appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter and was asked if he's truly ready for UFC.
"Am I ready today? Probably not, but I'd fight anybody right now whether that's a smart decision or not," Punk told ESPN. "I think you have to be a little bit nuts. I think I used to not be able to walk or swim and I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but I'm gonna get there and I'm excited to climb that mountain."
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Punk was also asked what he needs to do to prepare for his first fight, which is expected to be in six or seven months.
"Train, hone my skills. I'm already disciplined, I've been training and the only thing I need to do is more miles on the road so to speak," Punk said.
Punk, whose real name is Phil Brooks, also touched on what his strengths and weaknesses are.
"I think this is why myself along with everybody else loves MMA," Punk said. "There's so many options. There's wrestling, there's jiu-jitsu; there's kick boxing, Muay Thai, straight boxing [and] everything. And everybody's pretty well-rounded and that's how I feel I need to come into the game. I'm comfortable on the ground whether I get taken down on my back, I'm confident in my ability to stand back up. I'm confident in my jiu-jitsu and it's only gonna get better from now until the day I fight."
Punk was also asked about the criticisms of Matt Brown, who said a "dumb athlete" like Punk doesn't belong in the octagon.
"I'm not sure I have a response for Matt, I'm a fan of Matt," he said. "I like watching...one of my favorite fights last year was Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva. I thought that was awesome. Matt Brown's an awesome fighter and I'm still gonna love watching him fight. But, everybody has an opinion whether it's positive or negative and the negative ones -- ...while I understand their perspective, I understand where he's coming from -- ...I don't wanna say, 'well they're just upset.' And more power to you and I understand your point of view, my job is to do what's good for me and my family and along the way if I change your mind Matt Brown...awesome."
Punk was also asked to describe the similarities and differences between WWE CEO Vince McMahon and UFC president Dana White.
"I was asked this in an interview earlier in the week and I kind of wasn't prepared for it and I really didn't like my response because it was very vague like, 'oh they're very similar but also very, very different,'" he said. "They're both driven, they're both set in their ways. They both have an idea of what's best for their company and everything like that and I think that's how they're the same. How they're different I think is the difference in the generation. Vince is very old school. Dana is more open-minded. There's more of a warmth on the UFC side that I'm experiencing and Dana's more open-minded obviously he hired me. And that's probably how different as I can describe right now."
Lastly, Punk talked about fueling himself off of the doubts of his detractors.
"Listen, there's always people throughout my entire life who have told me that I can't do something," he said. "Nobody ever thought I'd make it to the WWE, nobody ever thought I'd be the champion. And no one ever thought I'd be in the UFC and it's levels and I definitely very much use the negativity that comes my way to fuel me to prove people wrong. I feel like I'm very good at doing that."
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