CM Punk\u2019s head trainer, Duke Roufus, appeared on Monday\u2019s edition of \u201cThe MMA Hour\u201d at MMAFighting.com to discuss the progress of Punk\u2019s MMA training.<\/p>\n
Roufus, acknowledging that Punk came to the table with a jiu-jitsu background, noted that he is a \u201cnatural striker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s putting his work in, he shows up every day,\u201d said Roufus. \u201cHe has a great attitude. He didn\u2019t become successful in the WWE by accident. It\u2019s because he was a worker and he was a value to the organization, not only in the front as a face, but in who he is. People get behind people that are easy to work with, and he\u2019s so easy to work with. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roufus continued, \u201cThat being said, he came in with Gracie jiu-jitsu. The natural thing he\u2019s good at, which makes me happy, is striking. He\u2019s a natural striker. When he did a scrimmage last week, he was pretty comfortable in the fire. He didn\u2019t freak out, he didn\u2019t panic. That\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for in new fighters. It\u2019s not necessarily skill. You can teach skill, but you can\u2019t teach will. Are they going to run and break during a fight, or are they going to get in there and survive the fire? And that\u2019s what I was impressed with. I think in time, all his skills are going to advance, but if he has the mindset and the will, he\u2019s going to do great.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as when Roufus would like to see Punk step into the Octagon for his first fight, the Milwaukee-based trainer explained why he would like to have Punk in the gym for a full year before he sees any real action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like a year, honestly,\u201d said Roufus. \u201cBecause I want him to be the best product for himself, for the organization, and for the industry. I mean, I want him to go out there and put on a great fight and do great things. Again, the value\u2026his fans are amazing. I just think that his fans\u2026his fans are just going to elevate out sport to a whole new level. MMA is big, but we can always get bigger, and I\u2019m a firm believer that high tide raises all ships.\u201d<\/p>\n
CM Punk CHANGES Weight Class, Meeting With UFC Officials In July TO Set Up His Debut!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CM Punk\u2019s head trainer, Duke Roufus, appeared on Monday\u2019s edition of \u201cThe MMA Hour\u201d at MMAFighting.com to discuss the progress of Punk\u2019s MMA training. Roufus, acknowledging that Punk came to the table with a jiu-jitsu background, noted that he is a \u201cnatural striker.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s putting his work in, he shows up every day,\u201d said Roufus….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}