CM Punk’s latest UFC challenger, Mike Jackson, was recently a guest on WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T’s podcast, Heated Conversations, to talk about fighting the former WWE Champion. Jackson said that he knew he was on a different level from Punk mixed martial arts (MMA) wise, and admits Punk was extremely confident heading into the fight.
He also truly believes that Punk thought he could win the fight by submission if he got it to the ground:
“I do believe that he did. I legit felt that in his mind that he was going to take me down and submit me. I believe that 100%. No man is going to get into a fight with nothing but winning on their mind. I don’t believe that. Outside of the bums who are just joining for a check, I don’t think he was doing it for a check,” Jackson said.
“He could have made the money elsewhere off of his brand. I felt that in his heart he thought that he was going to take me down and submit me, but like I said I was at a different level than where he was at. I had to shut all that down.”
Jackson then addressed SmackDown Live star Daniel Bryan’s recent comments in which he said he thinks he could beat Jackson on the ground. Jackson pretty much laughed that challenge off and said that if Bryan really wants to fight he’d happily accept the challenge:
“I saw that and I just laughed. I remembered seeing it scroll through my headline but I didn’t know what it was so I kept scrolling and didn’t pay any attention to it because I just thought it was a CM Punk reference. I just kept scrolling—I was in Chipotle and was trying to get me a bowl and next thing you know my phone is blowing up,” Jackson said.
“People were like, yo, Daniel Bryan said—I was like, dude, this is getting ridiculous now. I was like, what? Like I said, I kind of drifted away from pro wrestling once he grew in popularity, but I am very familiar with pro wrestling and the whole ‘Yes!’ chant and things like that.
“I know that he has a little background in catch wrestling and things like that, but my thing is that I know you have neck problems. I know where you are restricted in your abilities so why would my name even come out of your mouth? If Daniel Bryan wants this smoke, they call me ‘Chimney Man’ because I have all this smoke.”
You can listen to Jackson’s interview with Booker T on Heated Conversations by clicking here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
