{"id":23801,"date":"2016-06-23T02:55:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T07:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=23801"},"modified":"2016-06-23T23:42:04","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T04:42:04","slug":"c-m-punks-debut-ufc-fight-official-ufc-203-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/06\/23\/c-m-punks-debut-ufc-fight-official-ufc-203-september\/","title":{"rendered":"C.M. Punk&#8217;s UFC debut fight official for UFC 203 in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1907449378\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>C.M. Punk&#8217;s first UFC fight is finally official.\u00a0Punk will fight Mickey Gall at UFC 203 on September 10 in Cleveland.<\/p>\n<p>Punk made the announcement\u00a0on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ufc.com\/news\/ufc-unfiltered-episode-1-dana-white-matt-serra-jim-norton-june-2016\" target=\"_blank\">new edition of the\u00a0&#8220;UFC Unfiltered&#8221; podcast with hosts Jim Norton and Matt Serra<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Punk said he was just got cleared by his doctor &#8220;for everything,&#8221; including having his first pro fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The instant I got cleared, I got on the horn with Dana (White) and we nailed everything out. I will be debuting September 10 in Cleveland,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m super-excited. I&#8217;m happy to have a date, there&#8217;s a light at the end of the tunnel, I can probably say I&#8217;m healthy and strong again.\u00a0It&#8217;s nice to be healthy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fight is set for the Welterweight division, with Punk expecting to slim down to the 170-pound range for the fight. Punk said he is currently at 190 pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Punk also noted that he is planning to attend UFC 200 on July 9, where Brock Lesnar is returning to the octagon to fight Mark Hunt.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Punk said there were times during his training and especially rehabbing from back surgery when\u00a0he questioned whether\u00a0the fight will\u00a0ever happen.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1637714462\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The worry of that definitely crept into my head,&#8221; Punk said. &#8220;I tried to stay positive. The back surgery was a f&#8212;&#8211; bum-out. And then there&#8217;s the months of rehabs where I couldn&#8217;t do anything.&#8221; But, during periods where he could only ride a bike, Punk said, &#8220;I never thought that it was over. I never thought that I\u00a0was never going to make it to a fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Punk said he hit a brick wall with his training, prompting the back surgery. Punk said he found out that he had been walking around with a herniated disc &#8220;probably for years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he thought to himself why he was putting his body through major stress to make his UFC debut, Punk said,\u00a0&#8220;No. If I didn&#8217;t (shift to UFC), I probably would still be walking around with a herniated disc if I didn&#8217;t have the UFC doctors spot it and take care of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Regarding his debut opponent, Mickey Gall, Punk said he feels bad that Gall had to sit on the sidelines waiting for him to be ready to fight.<\/p>\n<p>Punk said he&#8217;s not focusing so much on Gall, the fighter, but who he has been trying with leading up to the fight. Punk said he&#8217;s doing the fight to challenge himself and learn, hoping to get a positive result out of it.<\/p>\n<p>But, Punk said, &#8220;this is just the beginning,&#8221; implying he hopes to have more than just one UFC fight.<\/p>\n<p>As part of his training, Punk said he&#8217;s also had to train himself not to pay attention to social media. Punk acknowledged a lot of negativity surrounding his UFC debut, but he&#8217;s tightened his inner circle to stay focused on the goal.<\/p>\n<p>Punk said he can &#8220;really get in a bad place&#8221; mentally thinking about the negativity, so he&#8217;s just listening to his wife (A.J. Lee), trainers, friends, and team.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4232135188\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not the best at this. No s&#8212;. I know that. I want to f&#8217;n give it a shot,&#8221; Punk said. Punk added that he feels like he&#8217;s in a no-win situation with the fight result.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I beat Mickey, Mickey sucks. If Mickey beats me, haha, lol, go back to WWE. That&#8217;s why you can&#8217;t invest any of your time into that,&#8221; Punk said. He called social media &#8220;poison&#8221; that he can&#8217;t pay attention to before the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Punk said this is a goal that he wanted to achieve, not wanting to wake up\u00a0one day wishing he would have take advantage of the chance to compete professionally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is actually happening,&#8221; Punk closed the podcast interview.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1754327613\"><div id=\"pwtor-4263288370\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>C.M. Punk&#8217;s first UFC fight is finally official.\u00a0Punk will fight Mickey Gall at UFC 203 on September 10 in Cleveland. Punk made the announcement\u00a0on a new edition of the\u00a0&#8220;UFC Unfiltered&#8221; podcast with hosts Jim Norton <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/06\/23\/c-m-punks-debut-ufc-fight-official-ufc-203-september\/\" title=\"C.M. Punk&#8217;s UFC debut fight official for UFC 203 in September\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,51],"tags":[283,3195,479,188,3204],"class_list":["post-23801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-news_mma","tag-cm-punk","tag-cm-punk-ufc","tag-mma","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-203"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PunkCM_WK_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23801"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23868,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23801\/revisions\/23868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}