{"id":8678,"date":"2016-01-21T12:46:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T18:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=8678"},"modified":"2016-01-21T12:46:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T18:46:27","slug":"8678","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/01\/21\/8678\/","title":{"rendered":"C.M. Punk &#8211; training for UFC career, not publicity; talks Batista&#8217;s big advice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4283231322\" 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 talked in-depth about the broader ramifications of his attempt to become a UFC fighter in a <a href=\"http:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/news\/cm-punk-insists-his-foray-into-the-ufc-is-no-joke-154759360.html\" target=\"_blank\">lengthy interview with Yahoo Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Punk noted the angst of UFC fans who don&#8217;t want to see a &#8220;WWE wrestler&#8221; enter their world, or people who might buy the PPV for his first UFC fight to see him lose.<\/p>\n<p>But, Punk hopes to get the message across that he&#8217;s not training on a daily basis for publicity or because he&#8217;s looking for a high-profile payday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_18_1_1_1453390344707_2117\">&#8220;I\u2019m 100 percent serious about this,&#8221; Punk told reporter Kevin Iole. &#8220;I wouldn\u2019t devote this much of my life and have gone through all of this for a little bit of publicity. I can get publicity a lot more easily than I can by training to fight. I\u2019m fighting because I love to fight and compete. When you get right down to it, that\u2019s what this is all about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Punk also hopes that by the time his first fight rolls around this summer, UFC fans will have a greater respect for his desire to succeed and fight skills. If not, well, there&#8217;s nothing he can do about it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_18_1_1_1453390344707_2207\">\u201cThe people who don\u2019t like the UFC and want to see it fail are always going to find the negatives,\u201d he said. \u201cYou hear them. They say, \u2018Oh, they didn\u2019t do this,\u2019 or \u2018They\u2019re not doing this right.\u2019 The people who like it are going to buy the pay-per-view, and I want to respect them and the other fighters and this sport by being as prepared as I can. But there\u2019s always going to be people who don\u2019t like it or who have a problem with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_18_1_1_1453390344707_2216\">\u201cI love the sport, and I have for a long time,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019d stay up late and watch the Pride New Year\u2019s Eve shows. I watch all the UFC pay-per-views. I\u2019m a fan. I love this stuff. Literally, I looked at it and I said, \u2018That\u2019s something I want to do.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Punk has gained the respect of his training partners at Roufusport in Milwaukee, including UFC fighter Anthony Pettis, who said Punk &#8220;is taking it very seriously.&#8221;<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2728712507\" 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>Punk also relayed the conversation with Dave Bautista about ultimately deciding he needed to go after his UFC dream.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to do it. You\u2019ve got to chase your dream. You\u2019re going to wake up one day and realize that you were presented an opportunity and you could have done it, but didn\u2019t.\u2019 So it\u2019s a big reason,&#8221; Punk said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2319548334\"><div id=\"pwtor-2470807800\"><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 talked in-depth about the broader ramifications of his attempt to become a UFC fighter in a lengthy interview with Yahoo Sports. Punk noted the angst of UFC fans who don&#8217;t want to see <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/01\/21\/8678\/\" title=\"C.M. Punk &#8211; training for UFC career, not publicity; talks Batista&#8217;s big advice\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2067,"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":[51,3],"tags":[283,479,188,71],"class_list":["post-8678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_mma","category-news_wwe","tag-cm-punk","tag-mma","tag-ufc","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Punk_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8678","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=8678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8679,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8678\/revisions\/8679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}