CLEVELAND – CM Punk didn’t dazzle on the mats at the open workouts on Wednesday, just three days before he makes his UFC debut. He grappled a tiny bit, choked out his coach and put him in an armbar, then did a lap around the perimeter to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
It wasn’t that he was trying to conceal his game plan for his fight with Mickey Gall at UFC 203. Punk, whose real name is Phil Brooks, just sees the whole pageantry of the open workouts a little weird.
"What am I going to do, knockout my coach?" Punk said in during a media scrum after the workout. "I think I’m more paranoid about doing something stupid and getting hurt, you know what I mean? I don’t want to do that. We’re knocking on the door here. So I am just trying to do everything I can to remain healthy.
"It feels good. Even just grappling in front of people, and I don’t know why anybody wants to watch that…I find the open workouts kind of funny sometimes. But I feel amazing. This is a lot of fun. I’ve seen the process. I’ve heard stories. I’ve seen nightmare weight cuts, and I’m just trying to enjoy this entire week. Even the bad stuff."
The 37-year-old former WWE wrestler has been a captivating figure in MMA leading up to his debut, mostly because he falls so squarely in the unknown. Though he’s been working with Duke Roufus in Milwaukee for the past year-and-a-half, he has plenty of people doubting him as he makes the transition into MMA. Gall, who has two professional fights, is a decent favorite at the sports book to beat him.
Yet the mood was light as Punk took in the scene of his first official UFC fight week. As a famous entertainer, he made plenty of jokes — "Look at all these microphones, I’m so nervous," he said when he stepped into the scrum — but he was very serious when asked about his expectations on the fight.
"The goal, obviously, is to get your hand raised," he said. "I think if you walk in there with anything less than that as your train of thought, you’ve already lost. I belong here. My team belongs here. And I’m confident in my preparation. But, just stepping foot in the Octagon, that’s a victory. Just rehydrating and eating on Friday, that’s a victory. That’s the way I look at it."
One of the things that Punk relayed to the media that had assembled was that he felt the exhilaration of what he was doing. That is, he feels the nervous energy that he used to feel long ago when he was newer to the squared circle.
"I’m cool as a cucumber," he said. "I’ve stated before that I’m sure I’ll have pre-fight butterflies, but I’m looking forward to feeling that again. There was a long time before I’d go through a curtain, I’d just sit there. And just be like, they’re not coming. They’re gone, they’re gone. They were gone for a long time, and I’m glad they’re back."
When asked what people should expect in the fight, Punk spoke like a confident fighter — but also like a confident fighter with something to prove.
"They should expect a fight," he said. "This is MMA, it’s chaos. And I’m going in there to win, and I don’t care how it happens."