1. Pick The Right Team
Here's a big one. Right now, CM Punk has six to eight months to make the transition from professional wrestler to professional fighter. And while the choreographed moves of the WWE require guts and athleticism, and while occasionally there are stiff matches and shoot fights in the pro wrestling world, in the end, it's not real fighting. The injuries are real, but the outcomes are fixed, and the moves generally benign. Moving from one world to the next has been done several times: Ken Shamrock did it. Sakuraba did it. Brock Lesnar did it. Bobby Lashley did it. However, none of them did it alone. Lesnar was the centrepiece, but he still had Team DeathClutch with Cole Konrad and Pat Berry. Bobby Lashley trains with American Top Team. Punk has options. Imagine a Punk with ATT or Team Alpha Male, home of Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, and bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw. Then there's Chael Sonnen. The former title contender may have ended his career under fire regarding PED use, something he admitted to, but he's still a skilled fighter and wrestler who could teach Punk a lot, and they have a pre-existing relationship. Sonnen proved he was an effective coach on The Ultimate Fighter twice, and could be an option. Regardless, Punk needs to choose the right team, a team that pushes him, but has the patience to deal with a guy who will have all the spotlight despite lacking the experience. It needs to be as much of an ego-free environment as possible. In the end, time will tell how successful the CM Punk experiment will be. For now, we can analyse, second guess, and predict - and we'll see, come fight time, which way Punk's MMA career goes.