CM Punk had an MMA debut debut to forget when he was dominated by Mickey Gall last September, but the payoff was apparently worth it.
Punk’s wife A.J. Mendez — also a former WWE wrestler who went by the ring name A.J. Lee — sat down for an interview with the “Jim and Sam Show” on SiriusXM this week. When the hosts mentioned that Punk seemed to take his loss by submission to Gall quite well, she indicated the paycheck that came from the fight had a lot to do with that.
“I don’t think it hurt that for one night of working you get paid $1 million,” Mendez said. “He was pretty psyched about that. He came backstage with a giant smile on his face. He was incredibly sweaty and I just threw myself on him and was like, ‘I’m so frickin’ proud of you.'”
The comment was made more in passing, so it’s unclear how accurate the dollar amount is. Previous reports claimed Punk made $500,000 for his first MMA fight, but there may have been bonuses of some sort.
Punk never stood a chance against Gall, who defeated him in the first round with a rear-naked choke (video here). Despite that, Mendez says he is serious about wanting to fight again.
Punk retired from the WWE in 2014 and slammed the organization not long after he left. He’ll turn 39 later this year, so it’s hard to envision him having a successful MMA career.
