CM Punk: “I just do better in high-pressure situations”

While CM Punk may not have made his MMA debut yet, the stakes are high for the former WWE Champion.

As we get closer and closer to Punk’s potential UFC 200 debut, we now know that if Mickey Gall defeats Mike Jackson this Saturday at ‘UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson’ he will be Punk’s first opponent.

While many have criticized Punk for looking to make his MMA debut on the grandest stage of them all at the age of 37, he has spent the last year training under Duke Roufus at Roufusport to make sure he’s prepared for his debut.

Ahead of Mickey Gall’s UFC debut on Saturday, Punk spoke to Fox Sports to discuss the situation:

“I saw the one fight, I know he trains with good guys and he seems like a good kid,” Punk told FOX Sports. “We’ll hopefully try to dig up more footage on him as time goes on. He’s a well-rounded guy but I think it’s one of those things where we’re not going to so much worry about everything he’s good at and worry about myself and worry about everything that I’m good at.”

“I just do better in high-pressure situations and it’s weird for me to comment on it because I can’t understand people being freaked out by that,” Punk said. “Just because that’s been my life. I don’t see the big deal in it, but it might wind up being a factor. They talk about first fight jitters or Octagon shock or whatever they want to call it — that might happen to me. It might happen to them 10 fold. We’ll see.”