ESPN.com has a new editorial taking a look at CM Punk’s upcoming UFC debut at UFC 203 this Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio.
The article features a number of professional wrestling personalities’ collected comments on Punk’s crossover into mixed martial arts, including Paul Heyman, Ryback, Seth Rollins and Scott Hall. You can read a few excerpts below:
Seth Rollins says he hopes Punk is successful no matter what:
“He’s a guy who led the charge for a long time. He’s one of the first indie guys in a long, long time to really shake [up] the main roster in WWE and he paved the way for Daniel Bryan, for myself, Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, and those guys.
“Say what you will about his attitude and his relationship with the company right now, but I wish him the best and I hope that he is successful — win, lose or draw.”
Ryback says he admires Punk’s courage to enter UFC:
“From a basic human being standpoint, he is showing courage doing something the majority of people on this planet will never do and that is step in a cage and fight in front of millions of people. I respect he wants to test himself and has the courage to do so. For that reason alone, while I don’t condone him saying the things he said about me, I want to him do well. Any man can beat another man on any given night, so I just hope he achieves what he is looking for in this and I will leave it at that.”
Related: Final Installment On CM Punk UFC Mini-Series Now On-Line
Scott Hall comments on UFC marketing Punk correctly:
“I think people tune in to watch Brock win and I think they are going to tune in to watch Punk lose. I think they employed that strategy in their marketing so if he does anything but get creamed I think he comes out OK. They are not building him up as a big hype or anything.
“They are taking the strategy like let’s wait and see. They even showed him training in the cage and all the others guys were kind of standing around yelling at him because it is kind of like, ‘Let’s see what you got.'”
