CM Punk explains why he refused to shake Mickey Gall's hand
CM Punk didn't want to shake Mickey Gall's hand ahead of their fight at UFC 203 because according to the former WWE superstar, it's now time to fight.
Punk has been training and preparing for this moment for the past 19 months and he was clearly fired up when he stepped off the scale at the official weigh-ins to face off with his opponent.
As soon as Punk refused to shank his hand, Gall immediately started firing back before UFC president Dana White separated the two of them on stage.
"He was stuttering, I think he kept repeating 'oh you don’t want to shake my hand?' or something like that," Punk told FOX Sports about his confrontation with Gall at the UFC 203 weigh-ins.
It was a long road for Punk to face Gall after he endured his first real experience training for a fight not to mention a pair of injuries that sidelined him for several weeks.
Punk says all the training and work he did to get ready for his UFC debut really came into focus after he found out Gall was his opponent and he also had back surgery to repair a nagging injury that had plagued him since his days performing in the WWE.
"Once I had an opponent, once I had a date and once I was free of that damn herniated disc that I was walking around with for who knows how long, I was a different person," Punk said. "It's one thing to train, it's one thing to train with a singular focus and that's what I got in Mickey Gall.
"I know this is the most difficult sport to master. I look forward to mastering it sometime and I realize that will probably never happen, but I will get as good as I possibly can."
Punk faces Gall on the UFC 203 main card from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Saturday night.
