Former professional wrestler turned MMA fighter CM Punk looks to pick up his first MMA win this June at UFC 225, when the fighter takes on the also winless Mike Jackson.
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan called Punk’s pro MMA debut at UFC 203, but he believes the winless competitor should be fighting on amateur MMA cards.
“A guy who really has very little experience in martial arts and has rudimentary control of his body…that’s what I saw when I saw him training. When I saw him training I thought ‘oh my god this guy’s gonna get killed’. He belongs here [against Mike Jackson]. It shouldn’t even be on the ‘Tuesday Night Contender’ show. It should be in some amateur event somewhere,” Rogan said on The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show. “That’s really what they are. They’re guys learning how to compete. They’re in the first fight on the pay-per-view. That’s f–king crazy.”
Punk himself said he shouldn’t be competing on the pay-per-view portion of the UFC 225 card, but should be fighting on UFC Fight Pass instead.
Rogan says there is nothing wrong with being a beginner in MMA, but that and positive thinking isn’t good enough to achieve UFC wins.
“He’s now fighting a fighter who’s commensurate in talent and there’s nothing wrong with being a beginner in martial arts, but there’s something wrong with thinking you can be a beginner and fight Mickey Gall. It was a foolish venture. My approach to it was this is going to be a very good lesson for people who are fans of positive thinking and they think that’s enough. That s–t is not enough. If you weigh 110 pounds, you can positive think your way to the bank, Francis Ngannou’s still going to punch your brains out. There’s just no way around it,” says Rogan.
UFC 225 takes place on Saturday, June 9 from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois with Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
