Video: UFC President Addresses CM Punk’s Future After One-Sided Loss At UFC 203

Although CM Punk said on multiple occasions after his fight on Saturday night that his loss to Mickey Gall at UFC 203 won’t be his last MMA fight if he has his way, there’s one person who doesn’t appear to be interested. Unfortunately for the former WWE Superstar, the person who doesn’t seem interested in seeing him fight inside the Octagon again is the one man whose vote counts the most.

UFC President Dana White spoke with John Pollock of The Fight Network backstage at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio after UFC 203 this past weekend, and obviously the question regarding Punk’s UFC future came up during the interview.

As White explained to Pollock (see above), if Punk is serious about continuing his MMA venture he would be wise to think about doing what younger, more accomplished martial artists spend years doing before even hoping to make it on the UFC level — work their way up to the big show by fighting through the ranks on the smaller shows.

And they certainly don’t earn a $500,000 guaranteed purse and a pay-per-view main card spot for their first fight in the company.

“He probably shouldn’t have his next fight in the UFC,” White said. “Just like I said with Brock [Lesnar], having your first fight in the UFC is tough and you [saw] tonight.”

White continued,, “Even if it’s against a guy who is 2-0, [the UFC] is a tough place to learn.”

CM Punk got dominated by MMA rookie Mickey Gall en route to a quick submission loss in one of the co-featured bouts at Saturday’s UFC 203 pay-per-view in Cleveland. Gall took down a fired up Punk as soon as the fight began and used ground-and-pound to open up a rear-naked choke submission, which forced the tap at the 2:14 mark of the very first round.

For video highlights (which is essentially the entire fight) of the Punk-Gall bout from UFC 203 this past Saturday night, click here.