CM Punk has now suffered the second consecutive loss of his mixed martial arts career.

The former WWE Champion made his MMA debut two years ago when he suffered a first round submission loss to Mickey Gall in Cleveland. This past weekend (Sat. June 9, 2018) he made his Octagon return against Mike Jackson on the opening fight of the UFC 225 pay-per-view in Chicago.

Punk would go all three rounds with Jackson and wound up losing a lopsided unanimous decision. It remains unclear if Punk plans on fighting in MMA again, but if he does, it’s unlikely it’s for the UFC.

Roufusport jiu-jitsu coach Daniel Wanderley recently spoke to MMA Fighting about Punk’s MMA career. Wanderley explained that the plan was to get Jackson to the ground early and get on top so Punk could try and implement his jiu-jitsu game on the former Houston Golden Gloves winner:

“Mike Jackson has a boxing background, so our strategy was to avoid standing with him,” Wanderley said. “CM Punk comes from the wrestling world. It’s fake wrestling with WWE, but he’s more of a grappler than a striker. Even though he has worked on his striking for a long time, it takes years, especially if you’re starting at his age. Our plan was to go for takedowns early,” he continued.

“We knew [Jackson] didn’t have much of a ground game, so he could scramble and submit or work on his ground and pound on top. His jiu-jitsu is better when he’s on top. He tried a triangle when he was off his back, but he was already hurt and it was hard to finish.

“Not that he did something wrong, but I think that the adrenaline of his [WWE] court case, that battle during fight week didn’t help. We were confident that he would win, but unfortunately we couldn’t. We’re proud of him because he went there and fought hard. At one point we thought Mike would end the fight, but we saw his heart there.”