CM Punk on Training for UFC, Getting Advice from Batista, Jason David Frank, Drax

– CM Punk recently spoke with SB Nation to promote his latest comics offering, which appears in the third issue of Vertigo’s Strange Sports Stories anthology series. Below are a few highlights:

You’re going to be taking on Drax over at Marvel. Do you find it a little surreal that, in a way, CM Punk is now writing Batista?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I texted Dave [Bautista] right away. “Dude, I’m gonna be writing the Drax comic book!” [laughs] And he was like, “No way!” So yeah, it’s definitely bizarre. It’s almost one of those stories where you wouldn’t be able to make this up.

Have you talked to him at all about the transition to MMA? Has he offered you any advice?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m trying to remember … It might have been a little less than a year ago. I think he was doing a comic con out here in Chicago and he came over just so we could hang out for a little bit. Yeah, I talked to him about it. This was before I made the announcement [that I was signing UFC]. I was heavily thinking about it, so I was — without spilling the beans to him, because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do — I was asking him all kinds of questions. Because he was in the same situation I was in, coming from the pro wrestling background, a little bit older than he probably should have been [starting out], just like I am. So there’s a lot of similarities, so he gave me a lot of advice to help me out.

I know you’re probably sick of being asked about this, but what would it take to get you to fight Jason David Frank?

Eh. Skip it. Next question.

What’s the most difficult part of preparing to fight in the UFC?

I think it’s being well-rounded. Getting my reaction time down for stuff. I know when I do stuff wrong, or when I’m in a bad position. It’s just fighting out of those positions and really putting it all together. Every day, training my ass off to be ready. It’s not going to happen overnight, that’s why I train every day.

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