CM Punk: I’ve never been more confident about anything

The main influences on mixed martial arts are widely understood – fighters need a broad skill set, but not one that is uniformly deep, characteristically with a specialization in wrestling, Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, karate, Sambo, among several others.

The influence of pro wrestling on MMA is less understood, but is very real. Mitsuyo Maeda, the man who taught the Gracie’s the fundamentals of what was to become BJJ, was a pro wrestler.

UFC 1 was on November 12, 1993. A league in Japan featured real, highly-organized bouts that could end by submission on the ground, or KO from standing, or via a judge’s decision based on grappling and striking. The first professional Shooto event was in 1989; the first amateur event was even earlier, in 1986.

Still, there is very little precedent for what retired WWE superstar CM Punk is trying to do. He has no competitive background in folkstyle, freestyle, or Greco, or in boxing, or kickboxing, or any combat sport. He did kenpo karate as a kid, and has dabbled in BJJ with Ryron and Rener Gracie, earning an actual white belt.

As Nate Diaz neatly put it, he has a “virgin nose.”

Yet at UFC 203 on September 10, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, Phil Brooks will be fighting Mickey Gall, on the main card no less. Gall is for real – 2-0 as a pro, 3-0 as an amateur, with a brown belt under 4th degree black belt David Adiv. Gall is a professional fighter, a dangerous man.

Punk signed with the UFC in 2014, and when he is not injured, has been training privately with the great Duke Roufus. But he is 37, with no background in combat sports. And from the clips that have surfaced of his striking, he looks, frankly, terrible. His grappling looks a little better, but he is no brown belt.

It is a little hard to understand what is going on. However, in an interview with Peter Rosenberg on Hot 97, Brooks expressed supreme confidence.

“Honestly, there’s no assuming – I’m gonna win,” said Punk, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “I’ve never been more confident about something in my entire life. I’ll probably sit on the beach for a little bit. I’ll probably maybe take a little vacation with the wife but I’ll get bored real quick and I’ll just want to keep going. I’ll want to get the second fight as soon as I can.”

“I wish I could fight tomorrow. I feel amazing. You get grinded down in the middle of the week. You gotta learn how to balance things out. It’s difficult but I love it so much it almost makes it easy. I’m just having the time of my life.”

So will Punk fight again (assuming he wins)?

“Everything hinges on that night,” he said. “I definitely think a huge part of me is just gonna want to keep the train rolling and get another fight on as soon as I can. There’s also another part of me that’s just gonna want to go to a bunch of Cubs games, because this is the year. So it all hinges on that night.”

Confidence is extremely helpful in order to fight, although fear too can be an excellent motivator. But you also have to be able to fight to fight. Thus far, Brooks appears to be an intelligent, dedicated, interesting, cool dude, but it doesn’t appear he can fight.