Dana White: "CM Punk probably won't fight in the UFC again"

[PorkChop]

“Is CM Punk going to be a guy who is going to stay in the UFC and continue to fight? Probably not,” White said on UFC Tonight, per Tristen Critchfield of Sherdog.com. “But he wanted to try it. I like the guy. I respect the guy. He wanted to fight in the UFC. He wanted to do it. He trained for two years, and he did it.”

“There’s been situations like Brock Lesnar who came in and wanted to do it, and obviously that one turned out well,” he said. “Then obviously we had the CM Punk thing. It just depends. I wouldn’t say that I’m looking for retired NFL players for pay-per-view or anything like that. I just don’t know what the real interest is in seeing some of these guys fights or even if it makes sense.”

"I know he wants to get back on the mat and keep working. I had a plethora of promoters reach out to me but I'm not his manager. People have shown great interest in working with him."

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/10/16/1 ... ling-fight

Bellator will certainly be looking to pick him up as he'd bring in viewers wherever he goes. I don't know whether he'd want to go there though. Bellator are the TNA of MMA, basically.

[Str8Shooter]

I note the use of the word "probably".

[Westcoastvibes]

I think he just needs to spend his days at home with AJ Lee naked all the time

[AkydefGoldberg]

Hmm, nice of White to ditch Punk after one fight as it was his decision to sign it off in the first place and it went awry. I'd like to think Punk will want to go out on a better note hence he will continue his MMA career and Bellator (is it a company owned by UFC?) sounds a logical route to build up his experience.

I hope he returns and puts in a more respectable ending to his MMA flirtation rather than retire to his couch forever which he could do given his financial security.

[PorkChop]

^ Bellator are a separate company to the UFC and are probably the UFC's most noteworthy competitor. They have a handful of guys on their roster who are actually good, but most of them are have-beens and never-weres. To say they're the TNA of the MMA world is quite accurate. Funnily enough, Bellator and TNA have cross-promoted on a few occasions too.

[HFX]

^ Bellator are a separate company to the UFC and are probably the UFC's most noteworthy competitor. They have a handful of guys on their roster who are actually good, but most of them are have-beens and never-weres. To say they're the TNA of the MMA world is quite accurate. Funnily enough, Bellator and TNA have cross-promoted on a few occasions too.

Didn't they only cross-promote because they were both on Spike during those times?