"Was a little strange" - When CM Punk spoke about how Conor McGregor hurt feelings of WWE stars with his remarks

Conor McGregor has not had the best of relationships with WWE.

In fact, the Irishman once launched a vicious verbal tirade against the sports entertainment company years ago, when he was still an active fighter. This incident, which occurred back in 2016, drew a response from CM Punk.

Punk, whose real name is Phil Brooks, is both a professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, having retired from MMA after a humbling pair of defeats to Mickey Gall and Mike Jackson, the latter of which was overturned to a no contest after Jackson tested positive for marijuana.

According to Punk, who spoke on the situation with McGregor on the UFC 203 media conference call, the Irishman's words led to a lot of hurt feelings in the WWE world:

"The amount of people who responded to him made me feel like they were told to respond to him. As you know, he is the biggest name in sports at the moment, you know?"

Back then, 'The Notorious' was fresh off a win over Nate Diaz and gearing up to take on Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title. His name was as popular as ever, which Punk feels was a factor in WWE stars responding to McGregor:

"So you know, there's always gray areas when you involve that whole scene and you're wondering if this is a work. It's not a work. A lot of feelings were hurt, though, I can tell you that much, which I thought was a little strange. You've gotta leave the emotion out of it. These guys still don't know."

Check out CM Punk talk about Conor McGregor's WWE insults (26:27):

Despite the Irishman's insults, in particular toward John Cena, nothing else came of it. However, years later, following the formation of TKO Group Holdings, 'The Notorious' did find himself in a brief social media spat with on-screen WWE manager Paul Heyman.

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Conor McGregor's UFC return may not happen at all

Despite the UFC announcing in early 2023 that Conor McGregor would return to face Michael Chandler, with both men even filming The Ultimate Fighter 31, there is still no official date for his octagon return.

Despite promising a 2024 return, Dana White recently disclosed that he doesn't know if he'll ever fight again:

"I don't know. Conor McGregor's got a lot of money."

Check out Dana White talking about Conor McGregor (0:57):

According to White, McGregor is too wealthy to be bothered with fighting again. Furthermore, he opined that McGregor's leg injury is yet to fully heal and has led to further, undisclosed, complications.