CLEVELAND – An emotional Phil “CM Punk” Brooks fears his first UFC fight could be his last, though he’s received no indication that’s the case after a first-round submission loss to Mickey Gall at Saturday’s UFC 203 event.

“I don’t know what happens from here on out; what if I get cut?” the former WWE champ told MMAjunkie at the post-event presser at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. “I think that’s a possibility? Do I want that to happen? No. But who’s to say where I go from here?”

With the way the fight played out, many would say Punk should ply his trade in MMA’s minor leagues. And Punk doesn’t necessarily disagree; he indicated he considered a smaller stage when he thought about making the switch from professional wrestling to pro fighting. But when the UFC came calling with a contract and a slot on a pay-per-view broadcast, he jumped at the prospect.

“I haven’t talked to (UFC President) Dana (White about the fight),” Punk (0-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) said. “But it’s not like I fought a good fight.”

So the question remains up in the air. One thing’s for certain, though.

“I definitely want to keep going,” he said. “I just fell off a bike. I’m not going to shelve it and leave it in the middle of the street. I’ve got to get back on to ride.”

In fact, the welterweight said he’d like to fight in the UFC as soon as possible to erase the memory of being dominated by Gall (3-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) on the event’s PPV main card. He added he’d train in the gym on Monday if his ear and eye weren’t injured; stitches marked the former while the latter was badly swollen and bloody.

“I sort of look like the Elephant Man right now,” he said.

Punk, marked up from the damage he took prior to submitting to a rear-naked choke, put on a brave face in the wake of his showing. But he fought back tears in describing the emotions that came with his loss.

“I’m just really, really hard on myself,” he said. “I lost, and it sucks, and it was lopsided, and it’s upsetting. But I know I’m better than that.”

Before the fight, Punk said he would take a moral victory simply by showing up in the octagon two years after signing a UFC contract as an MMA neophyte. That victory rang hollow against the outcome of his debut.

“I wanted to win,” he said. “I wanted to perform. It didn’t happen.”

Punk, though, had no hard feelings toward Gall, who was supremely confident leading up to the bout and yet doubted his own qualifications for the main-card bout. Punk sought out the 24-year-old fighter in the octagon afterward and tried to counsel him.

“I said, ‘Don’t ever put yourself down, even if you don’t think you don’t deserve to be on the main card; you’re on the main card,'” Punk said. “Just shut the (expletive) up and fake it until you make it. Don’t sell yourself short.”

Particularly emotional for the 37-year-old was the reception from his wife, A.J. Lee, a former pro wrestler herself. Punk paused to collect himself before relaying Lee’s message that she is proud of him.

Afterward, the same message was forthcoming from his coaches, including Duke Roufus of Milwaukee’s Roufusport, who helped turn Punk from a know-nothing into something resembling a fighter. There was a glimpse of that work when he fought off Gall’s submission attack as he floundered on the mat.

“I just feel like I let them down,” Punk said of his team.

Now, he’ll wait to see what the future holds. He said it felt right to be in the cage tonight, and he just wants to it again. He’s worried the UFC won’t let him.

For more on UFC 203, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.