Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated recently interviewed former WWE Superstar turned UFC Fighter CM Punk before his UFC bout against Mike Jackson at UFC 225. Below are the highlights from the interview:
On how it felt to discuss the 2014 Royal Rumble Match while under oath during the recent trial he and Colt Cabana won over WWE’s Dr. Chris Amann: “The Twilight Zone is a good way to put it. That would have been about the time I starting doing my best to not cry on the stand. I was forced to watch myself get a concussion over and over again. It really, really sucked.”
On his biggest challenge and his UFC 225 fight: “That’s what it’s always been about. I don’t measure myself against my coaches, I don’t measure myself against my teammates. If I’m doing jiu-jitsu for sport, I don’t measure myself against the guy I’m rolling with or whatever belt he is or how many stripes he has on his belt. I measure myself every day against the guy I was yesterday. Or the guy I was at noon as opposed to the guy I am at 9 p.m. at night. That’s what this has always been about, and that’s what Saturday is about.”
On his signing appearance for fans in Chicago the day before the big “All In” indie event and remaining grateful to wrestling fans: “Absolutely, and I think that was evident before I got to the WWE. I’ve always had an extremely passionate fan base. I jumped to the WWE and the perceived notion was I became more successful. I got to touch more people’s lives and influence more people and perform in front of more people, and that was a great thing. I’ve done things, sometimes foolishly misguided, because I wanted to give back to the fans.
“The entire reason I did a podcast explaining my departure from WWE is because I wanted them to know the story. I had a company going on television trashing me every chance they got and I was being quiet because I was being professional. Here we are now, finally out of the woods. I do recognize the opportunity that there will be a lot of wrestling fans from all over the world coming to Chicago to see a wrestling show, and I can do something to meet some of them, if they want to, that we’d never have the chance to do otherwise. I think that’s going to be a fun weekend.”
You can check out the entire interview of CM Punk at SI.com.
Recent Comments