CM Punk Talks Training, Having a Wrestling Mentality, AJ Lee Leaving WWE

In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, UFC fighter and former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk talks training, having a wrestling mentality, AJ Lee leaving WWE, and more. Many will recall Helwani was the last person to interview Punk before he walked out of WWE back in January of 2014.

In the new lengthy piece, Punk opens up about training for UFC, his wife and much more. Below are a few highlights from the piece.

Punk noted how he’s happy where he is at right now with his training:

“Weird answer. I don’t know if I’m ever where I want to be. I always do things to the best of my abilities. I’m certainly not shocked where I’m at. I’m not upset about where I’m at. I learn every day and I’m happy where I’m at. But I wan to be better than I am and I think that’s what most successful people probably feel. I think when George St. Pierre was on top of the world, he always strived to be better than he was, and that’s the key for me, is going in and training my ass off, which I imagine I’m going to say a dozen times throughout this interview, and just learning every day and getting better.”

He said that while training, he gets stuck in wrestling mode at times:

“The toughest thing for me, and there’s a couple guys in the gym that constantly remind me, I think I take it too easy on guys. When we’re rolling or drilling or something like that, it’s almost like I’m still in pro wrestling mode, you know what I mean? So it almost takes me that stiff jab right in the nose to wake me up and go ‘oh, okay, thank you for reminding me.’ And that’s like a weird thing. But I remember talking to Brock [Lesnar] and he had that same problem. He told me it was kind of weird for him because you’re so conditioned to taking care of your opponent and doing things, and it’s just like, everything needs to be heavier and heavier on your hips, and that’s something we’re working on.”

Punk also talked about whether he was relieved to see his wife leave WWE or not, with rumors of his lawsuit against the company playing into the decision:

“A relief? No. I never minded watching her. I’m invested in her so I’m interested in what she does. But no, was it a relief when she left? No. I really think she was working somewhere, she was doing what she loved, and people were making it hard for her to work there, so it was a crappy situation. They made it so that it was no longer ideal.”

“She can go back tomorrow. I wouldn’t care. It’s her decision.”

The entire piece can be seen below.