Teammate: CM Punk Will Surprise People At UFC 225

Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Phil “CM Punk” Brooks made his mixed martial arts debut at UFC 203 in September 2016 and it’s safe to say that it didn’t go well, as he was dominated and submitted by Mickey Gall in the first round of the bout.

Following that bout, Punk’s future in the sport was highly unclear, but the UFC has elected to give the 39-year-old another chance, as he’s set to take on Mike Jackson at UFC 225 on June 9 in Chicago.

Ahead of this bout, Belal Muhammad, who trains with Punk at Roufusport in Milwaukee, feels as if Punk will ‘surprise’ those watching:

“He’s working really hard. He’s improved a lot. I think people are gonna be really surprised about the show he’s gonna put on,” Muhammad told Sherdog.com. “Not a lot of people are giving him respect after his first fight. But as you can see, Mickey Gall wasn’t no joke. He went out there and he beat Sage Northcutt pretty easily.”

Muhammad also feels as if Jackson, who is also 0-1 in his professional mixed martial arts career and who has also lost to Gall, represents a better match-up for Punk:

“I feel like it’s gonna be more of a test for him, the right-sized test,” Muhammad said. “Gall was an undefeated kid and he was a brown belt. Mike Jackson is kind of like the same level as him, so it’ll be a good test for him to go out there and put on a show.”

UFC 225 will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between champion Robert Whittaker and interim titleholder Yoel Romero. The co-main event, meanwhile, will play host to an interim welterweight title bout between Rafael dos Anjos and Colby Covington.