CM Punk recently spoke with MMAFighting.com to promote his upcoming commentary debut with Cage Fury Fighting Championships on December 14 in Atlantic City, NJ. The event will air on UFC Fight Pass. The full interview with Punk is at this link and below are highlights:

Commentary, was that something that just popped up out of the blue that you had never considered before? Or was that something that was always something of interest to you?

It was definitely an interest for me. I don’t think it was anything I actively pursued, you know? I’ve done half a dozen to a dozen pretty cool things commentary or analyst wise across a myriad of different things. Pro wrestling, obviously. I’ve been fortunate enough to be like a co-anchor on a Cubs World Series parade. I’ve done a Blackhawks parade. Ultimate Beastmaster season three, me and Tiki Barber were holding it down in the booth. So, being a fan of MMA, I think it’s just a natural progression. I think it’s something I can speak on. I might not be the most knowledgeable, but I can hold my own, I think.

Does this foray into commentary in MMA transfer your focus in the sport? Or is fighting still up there? Are you still training? Do you still want to be a part of the sport in that aspect, as well as commentary?

I do, I just don’t right now know how realistic that is, if you want to be honest about it. This was an opportunity that came around, just kind of like fighting did. A friend of mine calls me up and says, ‘Hey, you want to do this?’ The way I live my life — whether it’s right or wrong to some people — is, shit man, I don’t want to wake up tomorrow, let alone when I’m 85 and go, ‘Oh man, I didn’t do this and I should have.’ That’s kind of how I just operate. So, I’m still training, of course. I love it. I was just out in Vegas at the UFC Performance Institute. That place is amazing. I wish it was around when I was 20 years old, but that’s another story.

Have you looked back at the fight with Mike Jackson from Chicago at all? I know you were confident going into that fight and obviously didn’t go the way you wanted it to go. But have you been able to look back and kind of see, ‘Maybe I should have done this better?’ that kind of thing.

Yeah, I have. The reason I don’t like talking about it is I feel like people always offer up excuses and I feel like talking about anything that was going on in my life leading up to that fight would come off as an excuse. So I’d rather just leave it at, Mike was a better man that night. I for sure had problems, but it’s nothing I’d want to vocalize to diminish his win. That’s not what I’m about. That fight was, so to speak, it was yesterday. I see sometimes fighters will complain about things after they fight and it’s just about getting back in the gym and just kind of focusing on the next one. As I said before, hats off to Mike Jackson.

Tyron Woodley has been one of your biggest public supporters. He got asked a lot before his last fight about you fighting Logan Paul and he kept saying CM Punk would beat Logan Paul. You’re not fighting Logan Paul, right?

I’m not fighting Logan Paul. I think this is one of the avenues where people will be like, ‘I don’t even know who Logan Paul is.’ Logan Paul is apparently a popular guy, but it’s not in any kind of avenue that I drive my car on. The only thing I know about him is he’s the guy who filmed the dead body in the Japanese suicide forest, which is don’t get me started on that, because I’ll say a bunch of stuff and then I’m sure somebody will make a YouTube video about it.

My entire life, before I ever got into MMA, for some reason I’m like this magnet. I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe it’s because, like Ben Askren, I just live unapologetically, I’m like honest to a fault and I’m just myself and I don’t really care. When you fight somebody, when you enter into a fight camp, you have to spend a lot of time thinking about that person. Maybe some guys don’t, maybe some guys focus on themselves. But you still have this person in front of you. And I’m not into sharing that much of my time and my headspace and my life with somebody that did something that I feel is so reprehensibly disrespectful to the people of Japan, who I love. They’ll always have a special place in my heart. So, no. I’m not fighting him. I have no interest to.

One last thing, I know you have a relationship with some of the guys that were in Bullet Club — Cody, the Young Bucks, those guys. It seems like there are rumors — and possibly more than rumors — that they’re starting their own promotion, their own pro-wrestling promotion. What are your thoughts on them possibly doing that and would you have any interest in possibly joining them?

I think at this point that whatever those guys decide to do will be great for them and their families. If I was asked what I would do or what I would say to them — because they could obviously go to WWE whenever they want — it’s just a matter of is this what’s best for your family? And I think we live in a time now where WWE is not the end-all, be-all. I don’t think it has been for quite some time. I think the stigma that it is is still there and probably will persist for many, many years. But enough people have been there and left that can, I guess, extoll the knowledge of, ‘Hey, you know what, the place ain’t all that.’

And I’m in a spot now where I’ve been gone what, five years? Maybe the place has changed. I’ve got people who text me and say otherwise, but there’s ways to make money and support your family outside of that. With also being able to satisfy the side of your brain that’s creative, the side of your brain that loves professional wrestling, the reason you bought a pair of boots in the first place. And I think those guys can definitely do that. I think they can command their price if they want there. But if they did go there, then they’d just be another guy — just like everybody else on that show. It’s amazing, the more time the show gets, the less time it really seems they develop new characters.

If you want to bring this thing back full circle, this is exactly what I’m talking about with CFFC. I’m talking about not just, oh here’s two fighters. Here’s two human beings and they have a family and friends and you can examine all those things without just sticking them out there and trying to sell something that the wrestlers in the ring, that the fighters aren’t trying to sell.

If those guys all go and start their own thing, more power to them. Let me bring it full circle again, I’m not actively pursing really much of anything. I’m just kind of floating. And it’s a nice thing to be able to do and just kind of float and hang out and if somebody wants to pick up the phone like Dave Sholler did and call me up and say, ‘Hey, we really think you’d be good at this and we want you to be a part of your company,’ they can call me up and make an offer. That has remained to be seen. Pro wrestling is not on my radar.

But if Cody or Matt or Nick Jackson or one of those guys who you know were to reach out, you would listen?

I would always listen. I would listen to them, because just like Dave, I like the Young Bucks. I text with Matt on and off. But business is business. I know Cody was out there in the media saying that an offer was made [for the All In event Sept. 1]. An offer was not made. Calling me up or texting me saying, ‘Hey, if you want to come to the show and do something, we would love that’ is not an offer. That’s not an offer.

There’s other things. There’s a couple more loose ends that I’m still trying to tie up to fully absolve me from the world of pro wrestling. I feel like I’ve still been attached to it since the day that I left it and that’s mostly because of fugazi lawyers and such. But we’re wrapping all that up and that’ll come to an end. And once I’m truly free, we can explore the world and just float and hang out. And I can walk my dog and drink coffee and do commentary for Dave Sholler and continue to train at Roufusport. And do all kinds of stuff. I’ve earned it, I’ve paid my dues.

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Punk also confirmed that he’s still a member of the UFC roster and still in the USADA testing pool.