When CM Punk hailed Dana White over WWE boss Vince McMahon for "under the table" generosity

Phillip Brooks, popularly known by his ring name 'CM Punk', has been a part of two huge organizations - WWE and the UFC, and has worked with both Vince McMahon and Dana White.

In an interview with Renee Paquette back in December 2020, Punk had drawn parallels between the two huge business figures.

The 44-year-old started by saying how both White and McMahon leaned towards right-wing ideology and voted per their benefit.

“I think there’s levels to it," said Punk. "Obviously you can draw that they’re both right wing, the word I’ll use is weirdo, because obviously they vote based on what’s good for their pocketbook."

Punk then went on to share that the UFC president was more generous and helped a lot of fighters behind the scenes.

“If I really had to compare and contrast, I would say Dana is more generous," Punk added. "Dana does a lot of stuff for the fighters behind the scenes. I think there’s a lot of locker room money that people don’t know about and he gets a lot of flak for [not paying fighters enough]. That being said, I do also think fighters need to get paid a whole hell of a lot more."

Punk then went on to share that White's aggressive reaction to the criticism about fighter pay comes from the fact that he makes a lot of undisclosed payments to fighters that are not reported.

Despite that, the former UFC fighter still advocated for fighters to form a union. He added:

“But a lot of that time when he lashes out when people are complaining about pay and unionization, it’s because he knows, ‘hey, I just gave that guy $250,000 under the table’ but you can’t talk about it. But he should still pay people more and fighters need to get together and unionize anyway.”

Check out CM Punk's comments from the 0:14 mark below:

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How did CM Punk do in the UFC?

CM Punk's UFC journey was very short and underwhelming as he had only two fights in the promotion. The 44-year-old entered the UFC with a lot of hype as he used to be a big name in pro wrestling.

Punk made his UFC debut in September 2016 and took on Mickey Gall at UFC 203. The fight was a short-lived affair as Gall submitted the former WWE performer with a rear-naked choke in the opening round.

CM Punk's second encounter was against Mike Jackson at UFC 225. This time, the fight went the 15-minute distance but Punk ended up on the losing side via unanimous decision. The result was later changed to a no-contest after Jackson tested positive for marijuana.