UFC Fights: Alberto Del Rio Open To Facing Phil 'CM Punk' Brooks
Jose Alberto Rodriguez, more known as Alberto Del Rio in World Wrestling Entertainment, sat down with Wrestling Inc. to talk about his color commentary duties in Spanish for the new MMA series "Combate Americas" of NBC Universo. Del Rio said, "Combate Americas is going to be my first time in the role of an announcer."
"I'm starting with them this Thursday, it's going to be Mexican Independence Day, so we're going to celebrate this with a series of fights. There are going to be other celebrities from Latin America there, and I'm really excited about it," the man now known as Alberto El Patron added.
According to a report from WWE, El Patron was fired by the WWE due to unprofessional conduct following an altercation with an employee who allegedly made a racist joke. He has since returned to AAA in Mexico where he first started as Dos Caras Jr. and made other appearances with other promotions such as Ring of Honor and Lucha Underground.
The four-time world champion with the WWE is also an MMA fighter with a record of nine wins and five losses with two wins by knockout and seven by submission, as per Sherdog. He is not the only wrestler turned MMA fighter, with Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista, Bobby Lashley, and Phil "CM Punk" Brooks also making the jump from the wrestling to MMA.
ESPN noted that CM Punk signed with the UFC in December 2014 but had no schedule or opponent for his debut yet. El Patron also talked about CM Punk's new career path in his interview with Wrestling Inc.
"Punk is a great athlete. He's been training to do this for a while. Even before he left WWE, he was already doing jiu jitsu and Thai boxing. Phil is a really smart person. I'm sure the promoters would like to put him in the cage already because they know he's going to sell PPVs," the 38-year-old said.
"There are people saying that he's not going to fight, and it was just a promotion to get people to watch UFC, but it's not. He's fighting for sure. I can't tell you the specific date, because I know he's getting ready and he wants to do well. He wants to have a career in MMA," El Patron added.
He is also open to joining UFC and fight Brooks, saying, "I'll do it, but they need to offer the right money. The offers I received from all of the organizations are so ridiculous that I didn't even think about it. It's really good money for the fighters, because I know what fighters do every time they fight, but I do so well in pro wrestling. Why would I do something like that if I'm making the same money for pro wrestling appearances?"
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