Current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel “D.C.” Cormier and former two-division title contender turned UFC analyst/announcer Kenny “KenFlo” Florian got many in the MMA world talking when they revealed on this week’s edition of “UFC Tonight” on FS1 that they are starting to become concerned — on a couple of different levels — with former WWE Superstar CM Punk’s future in the UFC.
According to Cormier, as more time passes, the less Punk’s impact on UFC’s business will be. Despite the fact that Brock Lesnar, a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who is now back with WWE, spent over three years between the time he left WWE (March of 2004) and made his MMA debut with K-1 HERO’s (June of 2007). It was actually nearly four years on the dot when Lesnar finally made his big-league MMA debut, losing to Frank Mir via first round submission at UFC 81 in February of 2008. Despite being off of WWE television for a considerable amount longer than Punk will have been out by the time he enters the Octagon, Lesnar is still to this day considered one of — if not the single biggest draw in UFC history.
“As time is passing, it starts to lose some of the intrigue,” Cormier said. “I think the iron was hot when he first walked out on the WWE and that’s when he would have made the biggest impression on the MMA community because WWE fans would have followed him to MMA.”
Florian, a former UFC title contender at both 155 pounds and 145 pounds, said he feels that Punk isn’t developing his mixed-martial arts skills as quickly as everyone involved would have hoped.
“This is what really concerns me because they said he was going to fight in 2015,” Florian said. “That he needs some time to train. Well, that hasn’t happened. I know he has dealt with some other injuries and things like that. But the fact that they say that he’s not ready concerns me. It shows that, listen, you don’t just jump into this sport and say you’re going to compete. It takes time and there’s a process. There’s a reason why they’re telling him to take his time. I think his training isn’t coming along as fast as they thought and it’s unfortunate.”
As noted earlier this month, UFC President Dana White recently went on record stating that Punk, who many originally expected to make his UFC debut at some point in 2015, will “100-percent make his UFC debut in 2016,” and the promotion will be choosing Punk’s first opponent from White’s new “Dana White: Looking For A Fight” reality show. Punk’s head coach at Team Roufusport out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recently claimed that Punk will be ready to make his debut by mid-to-late Spring of 2016.