By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

While training for his MMA debut at Roufusport in Milwaukee, C.M. Punk talked in-depth to Fox Sports Wisconsin about his transition to MMA, departure from WWE, and non-combat sports projects.

- Punk said October is the earliest he envisions making his UFC debut and December being the latest. "In my mind, I'm shooting for the end of the year," Punk said. "If they tell me I'm a whiz kid after six months and they think I'm ready; it might be earlier and it might be later, I don't know. I know that's a very vague answer, but I'm taking this extremely seriously."

But, ultimately, Punk said that after his scrimmage/sparring session, he is leaving up to the training staff to decide when he is ready for his first fight. "I'm the most coachable guy here. I do what my coaches say. So it's not really up to me anymore, 100 percent. I'm leaving it up to Duke (and the other coaches and trainers). The original idea was to come in here, train my ass off for six months, and then sit down with all of them, have a little powwow and see where we're at."

- Punk said there is "zero" chance of returning to WWE. Asked what the best and worst part of the job was, Punk had nothing nice to say.

On the best part, Punk said, "Turning chickens--- into chicken salad. I think that's what the best workers always did. I think they took whatever idea they were given and they made it better. I think they take bad situations and bad ideas and make them palatable to the audience. I think they take bad material and shine it up and make it digestible. It was always a challenge because there's so much content with them."

On the worst part, Punk said, "After a while, I would say the worst part of it was their not listening and not understanding, and not getting a break when I probably needed one. Because who's to say where I'd be right now? They're always looking for the next guy, so nobody is really bigger than the company. Not that I ever thought I was, but I thought I was a pretty healthy cog in the machine. I thought I could've been afforded a vacation here or there."

- Punk said he does not watch wrestling anymore. "I've tried to, but I have an aversion to it. You do something like that for however many years I did it, and it's like a lifetime. I've seen enough," Punk said.

However, he will watch what his wife, A.J. Lee, is doing on WWE TV, or something that she recommends watching. "Chances are she'll only tell me to watch when she's excited about something. But, yeah, it's my wife, she's a grown-ass woman, she can do what she needs to," Punk said.

- Before entering WWE, Punk says his ultimate dream was to wrestle regular tours in Japan. However, because run-of-the-mill American wrestlers were not given much of a chance ten years ago, Punk said he went to WWE to "prove that I could draw money."

Punk stopped short of saying whether he would consider wrestling in Japan now that an American-based stable like the Bullet Club is New Japan. He also said he's not interested in the now-popular NXT Developmental show featuring independent all-stars. "No, I lived it," Punk said.

- Punk slipped in another dig at WWE's working environment when discussing future non-combat projects. "I lived in a toxic bubble for like 10 years. I get to do all those things now. You'll see a lot of stuff from me in the coming years. But a lot of them, I don't want to be that guy who's like, 'I'm working on all this cool stuff,' and then some of it never happens. So I just kind of keep things under wraps until they actually come into fruition," Punk said.

Punk did say he would like to venture into movies. "I'm sure eventually I'll do some movies and whatnot. I may or may not be working on a couple of things right now. But this (MMA training) right now is definitely my focus, so I don't want anything to interfere with that," Punk said.

- Not mentioned in the interview was WWE physician Chris Amann recently filing a lawsuit against Punk and Colt Cabana following Punk's accusatory comments about WWE's health practices on Cabana's podcast in November 2014.

[ LINK: Full Q&A with Punk covering more subjects HERE at FoxSports.com ]

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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