Ben Askren Comments On Why Fans Hate CM Punk

CM Punk hasn’t even had his first UFC fight announced yet, but he’s already one of the most talked about fighters in the world. Punk will have trained for a year for that fight this December. The former WWE Champion has confirmed he will be fighting in The Octagon sometime in early 2016.

Ben Askren is the reigning ONE Championship titleholder. The current training partner of Punk recently gave his opinion in an interview with MMA Fighting. 

The full interview can be read or seen right here. Below are some of the highlights:

Askren claims that Punk has every intention of fighting in UFC and that it’s not a publicity stunt: 

 

“If he’s not gonna fight, he fooled me,” said Askren. “I’ve heard that, and people have asked me that. He’s in the gym all the time, and he’s training all the time, so that would sure be a lot of effort to put into a publicity stunt. You’d think if it was a publicity stunt he’d maybe show up once a week or once a month. For a while before he was injured, he was in there twice a day, every day.”

The fans are angry with Punk out of jealousy. 

“Maybe jealousy,” Askren told MMA Fighting. “I would guess that’s a pretty good answer. He’s been famous, he’s made a lot of money, he’s got a hot wife. There’s a lot of things about him that people would probably be jealous of. I would guess that’s it.”

“The point was never really directed at him,” Askren said. “It was more Dana White, because at that point in time the reason he was trying to express to the fans why he didn’t sign me, which was untrue, was that I didn’t have enough experience. You tell a guy who’s an Olympian and is 12-0 and ranked top-10 in the world in mixed martial arts he doesn’t have enough experience to compete in the UFC, and then you turn around and sign a guy who’s never fought before, well you just contradicted yourself.”

There’s still no word on who or when Punk he may be fighting in his UFC debut.