UFC fighter CM Punk appeared on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd this morning, and below are some interview quotes via FOX Sports:
On re-signing with WWE back in 2011:
“Back in I want to say, 2011, my contract was up and they were trying to re-sign me and they were trying to re-sign me for lowball figures. It’s what they do to the guys. They’re indentured servants. They try to pay them the smallest amount of money you could possibly pay them. There’s no health insurance. You’re responsible for your own travel, your own hotels, your own food on the road. You’re home once a day, maybe. I did that 10 years to get to the WWE and then I did it 10 years there, so my gas tank was empty in that regard.
In 2011, it was kind of hanging in the balance there and I made the decision to re-sign. It’s not that I regret that decision, it’s just that if I didn’t re-sign, I would have dedicated myself 100-percent to this. So I re-signed, that story unfolded, that chapter of my book’s over with and now I 100-percent dedicate myself to this now. It’s just later than I anticipated and it’s a bigger challenge now cause I’m older.”
On him “soiling the sanctity” of MMA by not working his way up the rankings:
“There’s something pure about it that nobody outside that cage can touch. Do I think that I’m ruining the sport? No, absolutely not. Do I know that there are people that are going to say that? Yeah, absolutely, but I don’t got to see them on a daily basis and when I want to shut them off, I just don’t read my Twitter.”