Phil Brooks, better known by his WWE moniker CM Punk, is gearing up to make his big octagon return. That being said, the professional wrestler turned fighter’s opponent has come forward to reveal his thoughts on the match up.
CM Punk suffered a tough loss in his octagon debut to Mickey Gall, sending the fighter back to the proverbial drawing board for over one year. Now Punk is set to face off against Mike Jackson, another fighter to suffer an octagon debut loss to Mickey Gall, at UFC 225.
Speaking to TSN, Jackson revealed his thoughts on the fight.
“It’s not an even matchup because I have prior experience in combat sports. For those who don’t know, I come from the boxing and kickboxing realm. I’ve competed with Legacy Kickboxing where in these sports I’m undefeated. I’m undefeated in boxing, undefeated in kickboxing with all of my wins coming via knockout. So to the people who are just UFC or MMA fans on a national level, they may not know about my fight resume outside of the Mickey Gall fight.”
“For me, boxing is my bread and butter and I’m going to go out there and really impress the fans. They need to know who I am as, not really just a fighter, but as a media personality. This is definitely going to build a brand. People are going to see that although I don’t have a crazy record or anything like that or a crazy number of fights, I am a skilled fighter and with my skills, I like to entertain people. That’s what they’re going to get at UFC 225 in Chicago.”
“I missed the CM Punk in the WWE era, but it doesn’t matter. I know some people want to fight this guy because of his popularity and his name. I don’t get starstruck or anything like that. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here for business reasons and for me, none of that matters. I’m just going in there and smacking this man in his face.”
“There’s no malicious intent. I’m not going in there to hurt him or anything like that, but I am going to give this guy a beating and I want him to understand that there’s levels to this game and he should have went about this a different route. My biggest issue with this guy is that he called me ‘a can’ and I take that as a sign of disrespect. I have previous combat sports experience. He comes from professional wrestling where things are scripted and the outcomes are predetermined.”
“…This is the fight that should have taken place to begin with. It was the fight that made sense from the beginning. But again, when you’re a promoter and you’re trying to sell this almost sideshow of a spectacle, you have to have a great storyline. A great storyline wouldn’t have been to bring in CM Punk and put him in there in his first fight against Mike Jackson and watch me go out there and smack this guy and he gets no other shot.”
“Two title fights. Curtis Blaydes is fighting, that’s cool. But people are tuning in to see one fight, it’s the spectacle. This is not something you see all the time. You can see a Curtis Blaydes, you can tune in and watch him every few months. How often do you get a CM Punk versus ‘The Truth’ in the UFC octagon? That’s a once-in-a-lifetime fight, so this is the fight that people are tuning in to see.”
