CM Punk ‘pretty confident’ next fight will be back in the UFC

Former WWE champion Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and expressed his desire to fight in the UFC again. His first MMA fight ever was for the UFC, made him $500,000, and showed zero skill. However, it roughly doubled the expected pay per view television buys.

UFC president Dana White has said repeatedly and accurately that Punk’s next fight should probably not be in the UFC. However, the company White runs has to make a return on a $4,000,000,000 investment, and Punk may yet be a PPV draw if the matchup is right. And Bellator would sign him in moments vs. for example Baby Slice, a fight Brooks would likely lose, but not with certainty.

Brooks believes that if White had no interest in his second fight being in the UFC, he would have said so unequivocally, and cut him.

“I don’t want to speak for [Dana White], but I think if he wants to kill it, he would have killed it right then,” said Punk, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “Until anything is official, I don’t want to say either way what he’s thinking or what he’s thinking. But yeah, I’m pretty confident that it’ll be in the UFC.”

“I told him I want to fight again. We’re back at it. We’re back to the drawing board. So, it’s up to him. He floated me an idea and we’re kind of going back and forth on it right now.”

Speculation about White’s plans is just that, but appearing on TUF would be appropriate. In any case, the game Brooks was back in the gym two days after the loss, took a break to enjoy the Cubs, and is now back living part time in Milwaukee to train at Roufusport.

“I felt like I was in the best shape of my life still, so I just kept after it,” said Brooks. “I think that’s the best thing you can do after you lose.”

Brooks, now 38, says White has an idea about what Brooks might do next, but offered no details beyond saying something could be announced in the next few weeks. The one thing that Brooks said with certainty is that he will fight on.

“This is what I do now,” Punk sid he told White. “This is what I’m going to do now. If i can do it for you, awesome. If not, I’ll still bug you for tickets to your show.”