Former WWE star Alberto Del Rio recently spoke with Wrestling Inc.com to promote the new MMA series Combate Americas, which launched on NBC Universo this past Thursday, September 17th at 11 pm ET/8 pm PT from The D in Las Vegas. During the interview, Del Rio commented about CM Punk going to the UFC and fighting MMA, which Del Rio has fought professionally before.
“Punk is a great athlete, he’s been training to do this for a while,” El Patron said. “Even before he left WWE, he was already doing jiu jitsu and Thai boxing. He was just doing it to be in shape, back then he didn’t know that he was going to be in the UFC one day. Now he’s taking his time and he’s getting ready. He’s smart. I’m sure the promoters would like to put him in the cage already because they know he’s going to sell PPVs. Phil is a really smart person. He’s going to be for sure. There are people saying that he’s not going to fight, and it was just a promotion to get people to watch UFC, but it’s not. He’s fighting for sure. I can’t tell you the specific date, because I know he’s getting ready and he wants to do well. He wants to have a career in MMA.”
However, he would be open to facing Punk in his UFC debut.
“I’ll do it, but they [UFC] need to offer the right money,” El Patron admitted. “The offers I received from all of the organizations are so ridiculous that I didn’t even think about it. It’s really good money for the fighters, because I know what fighters do every time they fight, but I do so well in pro wrestling, why would I do something like that if I’m making the same money for pro wrestling appearances?”
You can read the entire interview here.
