In an interview with ESPN following the announcement at UFC 181 that former WWE Champion CM Punk (Phil Brooks) has agreed to a multi-fight deal with the MMA organization, UFC President Dana White commented on the news and indicated that Punk is still months away from making his debut and will likely fight at middleweight (185lbs).

“He wanted to fight here, he wanted to give it a shot, so we gave him an opportunity. It’s not like Brock Lesnar, we’re not going to throw the kitchen sink at him, Lesnar had a wrestling background, CM Punk is going to fight a guy who is 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, something like that. He’s been coming to fights for a long time and after his WWE contract was up he called me and said that he wanted to give it a shot, I said all right, we’ll give you a shot.”