After Cathal Pendred recently engaged in a public slagging match with a man who used to routinely engage in public slagging matches as a large part of his job in CM Punk, we couldn't help but think that 'The Punisher' held his own in that scuffle.
The whole thing started when Pendred took a shot at CM Punk, and himself a little bit, by uploading a video of Punk hitting pads in the gym and claiming it made him "look like Muhammad Ali", and speaking with Ariel Helwani on the excellent MMA Hour, Pendred explained his motivation behind the tweet and why he thinks the whole situation played out like it did.
I didn’t even call him out last week, I put out a tweet with a short clip of him hitting pads, and I didn’t use his Twitter handle or tag him in it or anything. I just put the video up. And you know me, as the Irish say, I’m always having a little bit of ‘craic.’ I was actually more ripping the piss out of myself than I was CM Punk. Everyone knows my stand-up hasn’t looked too beautiful since my UFC career started. And I just said, look at this guy, he makes me look like Muhammad Ali hitting the pads. So, I was actually just insulting myself in a half-hearted way.
He surely knew that word would find it's way to CM Punk, but Pendred believes he knows why the former WWE Superstar took exception to what he put out on twitter:
I genuinely feel like he’s responding to me just because he feels that he might have a shot, or else he feels like he could maybe at least not die in there with me. I’ve seen in a lot of his interviews since he joined, he looks more scared now than he did. I think he looks more unsure of himself now than he did when he first decided to do this. I think he’s in the gym now and he’s having a hard time and he’s realized, I bit off more than I can chew now.
I reckon he thinks Pendred is the way to go, and if that’s the way he wants to go, there’s a couple of hundred thousand reasons I think it will be the way to go, too.
Strong words from the Dubliner, who fights Tom Breese at UFC Fight Night Dublin on October 24, and he couldn't resist one last dig at Punk as a parting gift:
My striking has looked atrocious in the UFC so far, and that’s the type of guy I am, I have no problem ripping it out of myself. But that (the CM Punk footage) made me look good. I’ve seen boxercise classes where people were hitting the pads better than that.
Make it happen Dana?
via MMAFighting.com
