Anthony Pettis has high praise for CM Punk.
The main event of last night's UFC Fight Night: Nashville event saw Anthony Pettis defeat the 14-4-1 Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson by TKO in the second round via a "Superman Punch". Pettis is looking to continue riding his wave of momentum and prior to his bout against Thompson, Pettis chatted with TMZ Sports and shared his thoughts about the UFC Fight Night bout and talked about what he'll need to do to best his opponent. Pettis also talked about former 5-time WWE World Champion CM Punk and stated that Punk is still training in MMA and credited Punk for sticking with the sport after being thrown into the spotlight with little to no experience.
“He is man [still training]. CM Punk is still there. He’s doing more of the Jiu Jitsu and the Rolling and…. The time he should've spent getting ready to fight, is what he’s doing now because, they put a lot of pressure on him man." Pettis said. "They made him come over with no experience and fight on the biggest stage. I don’t know anybody that could do that. Not even some young kids.” Pettis continued, “He is still training. I don’t know what his plans are. I know he’s doing some movies and a couple of other things but I’m not sure if he plans on fighting again or what but he’s still training. He’s in the gym. That dude is a hard worker.”
CM Punk's last bout was during the summer of 2018 at UFC 225 where he was defeated by Mike Jackson via unanimous decision. Following Punk's latest MMA bout, UFC President Dana White stated that there is a chance Punk may never compete in the UFC again. Regardless of that statement, Punk has continued to train and has been in the gym with the likes of Anthony Pettis and Tyron Woodley. Pettis said that he'll give CM Punk his props no matter what he's done in the sport of MMA.
“Not many people in the world can do what he did, and I mean it’s on the biggest stage. He fought some good guys too. It’s not like he was fighting scrubs. He’s fighting good guys in UFC, and he’s training with killers man. He’s training with me, [Tyron] Woodley and he comes in [every] day and he’s getting his butt kicked and just coming back and showing up so, I give him props man. No matter what, he did it.” Pettis said.
Punk has been calling the action for the Cage Fury Fighting Championship promotion and at their most recent event, he ran into former Women Of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai. Fightful interviewed Sumie and she reflected on her career in MMA and to check out her thoughts about her run in the sport, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit TMZ Sports with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
