“The highs and lows of Vitor Belfort, I would not want to be that guy. Be on top of the world getting all these ‘knockouts of the night’ and all these awards of the year and then all of a sudden get shunned into the shadows. He leads a shady life, and it seems like karma might be coming back.”
“Cardio is king. This is how you make sure you don’t wear out in the fight.”
“I’m doing very well outside the cage.”
“To be stronger, you finish everything you start. You can’t take a break.”
“I’m a betting man. I like to gamble everywhere, everything I do.”
“I want to fight all the toughest guys in the world. I’m not trying to duck anybody or scared of anybody. I want to fight everybody.”
“I want to put on performances no one else has. I want to be flawless every time.”
“When I was a kid, when I was first getting excited about the opposite sex, fragrance was the thing. If you look good, you smell good, and you feel good.”
“I was supposed to fight a guy back in the day. He didn’t shower, specifically to throw off his opponents. Thank God I got injured, and I couldn’t fight the fight. I was so worried about it. I was like, ‘Oh my God – I heard about this guy.’ It was the worst ever.”
“I think it’s important to be subtle, sweet, and powerful.”
“My mom is, like, my biggest fan of my fight world, which is funny ’cause you’d think it’d be the opposite.”
“I’ve done all my bike circuit cardio workouts when I know I gotta push my numbers higher and I gotta be better than I was before. It sucks. Your body doesn’t want to do it, but I’ve done that. I know I have that in me.”
“When you’re tense and you’re forcing the issue, you kind of cloud your vision, so I think just being confident and super relaxed, waiting for my timing, has really helped me.”
“I’ve taken my beatings and learned how to get around and succeed against the big guys.”
“I think every fight helps for the next.”
“I’m not here to dance around. I’m here to fight for titles.”
“I’ve been chasing some paychecks. Modeling. I don’t discriminate against paychecks. I’ve got to pay the bills.”
“Injuries are tough. I tore my ACL 50 percent in my left leg. I can’t kick. I’m not going to fight without my left leg, which is my best weapon.”
“In fighting, when someone’s signed up to fight me, I’m not humble. I’ve never been humble.”
“I don’t understand people who just live to exist, live to be OK. Live to be regular, live to be average. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I live to be the best. I don’t live to be good. You only get one life, and I live to be great. I live to be special.”
“I’m in the pursuit of excellence. One foot at a time, one camp at a time.”
“I think Georges St-Pierre is a joke.”
“People probably don’t give me the credit I deserve for holding the Strikeforce title, but the people who do know, know.”
“Compared to some other guys at 205, of course, I’ll be a little small. But I’ve never tried to just physically go for it, bulk up, lift weights.”
“Every time I’m in training mode, I’ve had to monitor what I’m eating. I’ll break 210 and be around 215 pounds. I know what it takes to compete with the best guys at 205. I’ve trained with them.”
“To have the athletes weigh in on a stage, televised, it makes no sense. Holding us at weight to run us through medicals and a staging process, it lengthens the time we’re depleting ourselves.”
“I’m not one to turn down opportunities.”
“Men back up their words. Little boys run away.”
“I don’t like talking about cheaters.”
“I like big fights.”
“I always believed in myself.”
“I defended my Strikeforce belt twice, and you didn’t see me lose any of my intensity, drive, or motivation. That’s just the way I am. I will always be hungry.”
“I will always be motivated to improve until I feel I’ve achieved my potential.”
“I always knew what I could do in there and believed that I would win the world title. But when it actually happens, when your dreams all come true, it is the culmination of a life’s work. The feeling you get, I don’t have words for it. I don’t know how to describe it.”
“If I get a guy that can take my shots and withstand my arsenal for the first round or two, I think you’re going to see the best of me coming forward.”
“I get more relaxed. I get looser. I get more technical, I get faster, and you get to see way more of my game in the later rounds. In sparring, a lot of my best rounds are my third and my fourth. My fifth rounds are sometimes my best of all.”
“I start kind of stiff, and then I understand the movement, the distance, and then I can start loosening up. That’s how fighting should be. That’s how I try to keep my mind.”
“Aggression has proven to get people in trouble, in many ways, with the champions.”
“All I care is I’ve got the belt.”
“I like fighting clean. I’ve always fought clean, and I want to fight clean people. I want to fight fair.”
“When you show me the right contract, I’ll sign the right contract.”
“I’m not going to take off time and lose money to go fight.”
“The heart of the sport is about the top guys fighting each other. This isn’t WWE; this is fighting.”
“I think me and Werdum got some old beef from Strikeforce. He’s a guy I’ve always wanted to fight. I’ve thought it through, and I like the style matchup.”
“Bisping is a tough guy. You can’t write him off. He’s good at everything. He’s been able to beat some of the top guys out there because he can expose their weaknesses.”
“I’m one of the most well-rounded fighters out there.”
“Maybe people overlook me because of the way I talk or the way I look. I don’t know.”
“I have that brawler’s mentality, and I can get into that realm, but when I’m at my best is when I’m patient, precise, and technical.”
“I used to goof off a lot.”
“I just don’t see where Chris Weidman is going to threaten me. He’s a tough guy, but I’m better on my feet, better on the ground. He’s not going to threaten me with his wrestling.”
“I am a very technical guy. I’m proud of my technique, my fluidity, and my skill; that’s what I work on every day. I try to out-technique guys.”
“People haven’t seen the wars, in UFC, that I’ve had in Strikeforce and what I am capable of.”
“I’m going to show I’m the best fighter in the world.”
“It’s nice to hit and not be hit back.”
“I’ve met so many real heroes, people whose service has given me the life I’m lucky to live on U.S. soil.”
“I was never the bully: I was always the one trying to clean up the situation.”
“I have the will to win. I’ll put my will up against anybody’s any day.”
“Anytime you spar at a new dojo, whether it’s in Japan, Brazil, or Thailand, the fighters come after the new guy. It’s a way to test yourself against the best and to sharpen your technical skills and push yourself to be the best you can be.”
“You have to be patient, efficient with your moves, and attuned to what’s happening with your body physically. The key is not to rush or panic. You wait and wait and wait – and then strike.”
“If there’s a skateboard in front of me, I can’t help myself. I like to jump on.”
“My dad was a professional basketball player, and my mom was a hell of a tennis player.”
“I just don’t see how it is possible to be a vegetarian or vegan when you break your body down so much. You have to recover. You need those proteins and proper amino acids, like leucine, which only really comes from animal fats.”
“I’ve got a lot of natural talent, and I’m not wasting it.”
“I love fighting. I want to fight, but there are principles in this game. You’ve got to have morals. I’m not just going to fight fights to fight to get nowhere.”
“There’s no point in fighting guys when there’s no structure, there’s no rhyme or reason to who gets the title shot.”
“I’m not going to go fight the best guys in the world without getting championship fights or championship money; it makes no sense.”
“Jacare is a gangster. He’s been in the game for a long time.”
“My goal is to keep going out there and defending my belt and stacking up pay cheques to set myself up for the future.”
“It can always be better, and you only live once, and I want to live the dream and some more.”
“The more I stack, the more things I can buy: the more toys, the more houses, and everything. That’s the motivation, but I’m also a competitive person. I need goals, and I need that competition and to drive for something.”
“We’ve seen the true colours of Bisping; they come out after he fights. He likes to spit on people after fights.”
“Being patient has made me a more precise fighter.”
“Bisping will fight to the bitter end but does not love the fighting.”
“Floyd Mayweather, he’s a safe fighter. He is who he is. He’s not going to take any risks.”
“I want to be great, not good.”
“I love the liver kick.”
“I’ve always been a powerful kid.”
“I used to get beat up by my brothers, and that kind of built me into the man I am.”
“Naturally, when you’re a younger brother with two older brothers, I mean, they’re going to beat on you, and they’re going to make you… you’re going to grow up differently. You’re going to turn into a little animal.”
“I’m not knocking the other sports; I love other sports. There’s a competitive and a technical level of them that I won’t understand, probably, to a certain extent, but I’ve done a lot of other sports competing on college teams, and there’s just nothing like fighting.”
“I dictate the pace of my fights and no one else.”
“I’m going to shut Chris Weidman down in the first round. I’m gonna expose him in the second round. And I’m gonna finish him with a left kick followed by a left punch, simultaneously.”
“Bisping, he’s a piece of work. The guy likes to run his mouth. I look forward to shutting it.”
“I know who I am, and I know what my future holds.”
“I don’t think I really have the respect that I think I deserve.”
“I don’t pull out of fights. I fight through injuries. I don’t care what the circumstances are.”
“I’ve got a lot of power in my kicks.”
“As long as I don’t rush things, I’m a lot better fighter.”
“I want my rematch with Vitor Belfort, and I’d like it here in the States. And I’ll go through anyone I need to get it, especially Michael Bisping.”
“I’m very confident on my feet.”
“I cut out the partying a lot. I haven’t had any money to party. All I’ve been able to do is train and work on what I need.”
“I’ve had to take out a couple of loans; I’m not gonna lie. I want to pay off my debts. I want to start stacking some cash and set myself up for the future.”
“The people around me is the only reason why I survive: Bob Cook and DeWayne Zinkin.”
“There’s nobody that has the skillset that I have.”
“There’s nobody, pound-for-pound, that has what I have.”
“Cain has proven himself as the best heavyweight of all time, and it would be hard to strip him.”
“An interim title is just a guarantee at a title shot. If I’m going to fight the best guys in the world, I want a guarantee that I’m going to fight for the title.”
“I know how good I am, and I know where I can go if I’m in the right mindset and respecting my opponent.”
“I’ve come back from all my losses and won world titles every time.”
“I always look for bigger and better things, and if the UFC wants to bring in some top contenders, I’m more than welcome to welcome them in our hexagon.”
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