CM Punk addresses potential fight with YouTube star Logan Paul

After losing his first two mixed martial arts bouts — first a submission defeat to Mickey Gall, then a submission setback against Mike Jackson — former pro wrestling star CM Punk now finds himself in a tough situation. Although he undeniably possesses the heart required to compete as a professional fighter, he is simply at a technical deficit when compared to most of his potential opponents. Except, say, somebody like Logan Paul.

Logan Paul, a famous YouTuber, recently competed in a celebrity boxing match opposite fellow YouTube star KSI. After this bout, Paul discussed a potential move to the UFC, and given his inexperience, was mentioned as a potential opponent for CM Punk. Even UFC color commentator Joe Rogan discussed the possibility.

Apparently, however, CM Punk has no interest in fighting Logan Paul. The main reason for his disinterest, he says, is Paul’s infamous 2017 video in which he filmed a dead body in Aokigahara, the so-called Japanese “suicide forest.”

“I’m not fighting Logan Paul,” the former pro wrestler told MMA Fighting recently. “I think this is one of the avenues where people will be like, ‘I don’t even know who Logan Paul is.’ Logan Paul is apparently a popular guy, but it’s not in any kind of avenue that I drive my car on. The only thing I know about him is he’s the guy who filmed the dead body in the Japanese suicide forest, which is don’t get me started on that, because I’ll say a bunch of stuff and then I’m sure somebody will make a YouTube video about it.

“My entire life, before I ever got into MMA, for some reason I’m like this magnet. I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe it’s because, like Ben Askren, I just live unapologetically, I’m like honest to a fault and I’m just myself and I don’t really care. When you fight somebody, when you enter into a fight camp, you have to spend a lot of time thinking about that person. Maybe some guys don’t, maybe some guys focus on themselves. But you still have this person in front of you. And I’m not into sharing that much of my time and my headspace and my life with somebody that did something that I feel is so reprehensibly disrespectful to the people of Japan, who I love. They’ll always have a special place in my heart. So, no. I’m not fighting him. I have no interest to.”

So there you have it.

We won’t be seeing CM Punk fight Logan Paul.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/27/2018.