Punk: 'If I step foot in the Octagon, I've already won'
CM Punk doesn't see how he can lose in his UFC debut.
His positive mindset comes from an understanding that a 37-year-old former professional wrestler with limited martial arts experience is beating the odds by merely making his MMA debut in the Octagon of all places.
Punk faces Mickey Gall in a welterweight bout on the main card of UFC 203 in Cleveland on Sept. 10. On a conference call Thursday, Punk waxed poetic when asked about his expectations for his first fight.
"If I step foot in the Octagon, I've already won," said Punk. "I'm doing something that a lot of people think that I couldn't do. At the end of the day, I don't want to walk in there and lose. I want to show up, I want to beat Mickey, I don't really give a s--- how I do it. A win's a win.
"I'm not looking to impress one of my coaches more, I'm not looking to knock him out, it's like an all-encompassing thing, I think it's a route, that's why I love MMA so much. It's because it's so many disciplines, it's so many different things, there's so many variables, everything has to line up on that one perfect day and I'm looking to do that on the 10th."
It's been a shaky journey for Punk thus far. He signed with the UFC in December 2014 with the hopes that he would join a major camp and be ready to compete within a year. Punk made his way to the highly regarded Roufusport camp, but complications arose with injuries and matchmakers having to find a suitable opponent for him given his inexperience.
Now that his fighting dream will soon be a reality, Punk speculated on how his career could have been different had he pursued MMA earlier in his life.
"A big part of me wasn't going to re-sign in 2011 (with the WWE), and this is what I would have done," said Punk. "But who's to say whether I would have been 'hotshotted' straight to the UFC. I probably would have started where Mickey started, but this was going to happen regardless of when and where.
"Maybe I started late, but I really think that's someone else's opinion. If MMA was around in the form that it's in (today) when I was 14, 15, I definitely think I would have taken a different path."
Without the benefits of time travel, Punk will have to settle for being the rare fighter to make his UFC debut with a 0-0 record. And whether it's his hand or Gall's that is raised, he anticipates a satisfying evening.
"I think success is defined by the individual. I've had a successful camp, I've had bumps in the road, to me fighting in the Octagon is a success. I think walking in there is a success. So I win two or three times that night.
"I win when I walk in there. I win when I win. And I win when I get to eat a pizza afterwards."