Punk told Ariel Helwani that Vince McMahon had nixed him walking to the cage with Chael Sonnen on the 1/28 UFC show. A message board poster named Front Row Brian who broke the story in the first place said that Vince advised Punk not to even attend the show. Another person close to the situation confirmed to us that Punk was told before Raw on 1/9 that Vince wanted to talk with him about it and Punk at that point figured what he was going to be told. He was asked at that time and said he wanted to go and walk to the ring with him, and a few days later he was contacted and told he couldn’t do that and it was advisable for him not to attend the show at all. We contacted a few people close to the situation. One, who should know, said that he wasn’t even sure of the situation other than he expected it wasn’t going to happen but it wasn’t 100%, I guess figuring Vince could flip flop. Another described it as Vince just being in one of those moods. As noted Punk and Sonnen had become friends and it was Sonnen’s idea, being that the show was in Chicago. One person with the company said that it was due to Vince’s frustration and not being able to negotiate with Brock Lesnar since he’s under UFC contract and hasn’t yet been released, but one person very close to that situation said Lesnar has nothing to do with this decision. When reporting on the story on Inside MMA, Bas Rutten said that he had never heard of C.M. Punk.