CM Punk hasn't talked about any title aspirations, and that's good - he's nowhere near that level, no matter how good of an athlete he is. He may actually come into the UFC and shock some guys, however. With the right booking, there are no doubt fights that he can win - but if the UFC finds him a bunch of tomato cans to crush, they run the risk of becoming a laughing stock at the same time. What you don't want here is a Mickey Rourke situation. Rourke recently won a boxing match in Russia over a guy half his age. Because of the age, his competitor's poor record, and the rumour mill, the cries of "the fix was in" came quick and loud. People assumed it was rigged, forgetting that Rourke was a pretty solid boxer long before he was an actor. We're not saying the Rourke fight was good - it wasn't - but it was basically a case of a can taking some easy money to fight a celebrity in his 60s looking for one last bit of boxing glory. Punk and the UFC need to do everything they can to avoid this - and to do so, it would help if Punk had some clear goals he could share with the fans. "I want to make a run at the belt" doesn't have to be it, in fact it shouldn't be it, but it would be nice to hear Punk say "I want to put on some exciting fights and entertain the fans" - just anything more than what he has said so far.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
