UFC – CM Punk detractors are going to have some more ammunition, as the former WWE Champion will have his UFC debut delayed yet again. He’ll be undergoing back surgery to repair a herniated disc, according to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani.

Punk told Helwani that his back is something that has always bothered him, and he figured that it was simply professional wrestling injuries. As it turns out, it was.

“It got bad enough to the point where I couldn’t do anything the week before I went to train with the New Jersey Devils last month. One day I could manage, the next day I couldn’t. I’ve been in agony for almost a month. Chiropractor, acupuncture, massage, cryotherapy, nothing worked,” Punk told MMA Fighting.

CM Punk was linked to both July’s UFC 200 and June’s UFC 199 to take on Mickey Gall. Gall defeated Mike Jackson at last weekend’s UFC Fight Night 82 to earn the right to take on Punk in his UFC debut.

CM Punk has been signed with UFC since December of 2014, and yet here we are, 14 months later, and he’s no closer to fighting in the Octagon then he was when he first signed. I understand Punk prides himself on doing things that everyone says he can’t do, but maybe he should take these constant roadblocks as a sign that he’s in way over his head. Personally, I’m still bitter at Punk for the way he left the WWE, but I do still want to see him fight in the UFC. If nothing else, it’d be a spectacle, and it’d make him and the UFC a lot of money. But the facts are real: he’s 37 years old & if he’s constantly getting hurt during training, what’s going to happen to him when he fights a trained fighter for real? I’ve already seen one cult hero retire too early due to concussions, I don’t need to see another one.

-Ryan