One FC and former Bellator welterweight champ Ben Askren spoke to Submission Radio about the UFC signing WWE entertainer CM Punk.
On CM Punk signing with the UFC
“I had heard rumours on Twitter about that happening, but for that to actually happen it was kinda bizarre because when you think about it, the UFC in its inception was a spectacle, right? They brought all these people together and no one knew what was going to happen, and people tuned in because of that fact. But since then it went from spectacle to sport, where we have real legitimate competitors, they know what they’re doing, everyone’s a good, solid, fighter. So it’s kinda turned into a sport right, where it was a skeptical; and now UFC – who is the leader – obviously is trying to go more mainstream, but now it’s almost like they’re going back to spectacle, because you can’t really expect that a 36 year old man who’s got no combat sports experience is going to come into the UFC and be effective. I mean it’s simply to sell pay per views.
If CM Punk signing is good for the sport and could bring on a boom like Lesnar did
“Well I don’t think so, because Brock could be competitive because of his wrestling background. He was able to be in a good fight. Every fight he was in you thought he could win, right? And the same can’t be said for CM Punk. So who can they match him with up that people are actually gonna be convinced he could win the fight? There’s just not a lot of those fights for him. So you know honestly I see him maybe doing one or two big fights tops, and then being out of it. And maybe they’ll give him a momentary bump, but not a big one, and not a long term one.”
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