I’ve always been a rough kid.

When I came into the gym, I wasn’t just some guy. I was a two-time Olympian.

Legacy does matter to me, and I want to leave a good one in MMA.

If I would have won that Olympic gold medal, I would have gotten a job somewhere coaching at a university, and I would be totally content with my life.

It’s very difficult to make a 100% turnaround. It’s tough when you actually do exhibit patterns of bad behavior. You need to have a very strong support system of people who are willing to keep you in your place if you’re going to overcome these things.

Being able to go forward has been good, you know? I’m lucky to have that ability, to pressure guys and make them falter and wilt.

Ovince Saint Preux needs to know that not only me but every other guy at the American Kickboxing Academy are ready and open to open those doors in trying to help him accomplish his goals.

I was into basketball, but then once I found contact sports, it was over. I never played basketball again in my life.

I’m letting competition drive me, and when competition drives me, I don’t think anyone can compete with me.

My low center of gravity allows me to defend takedowns a lot better than most people. It’s very hard to get to my legs. It’s going to be really hard to take me down. There are a lot of positives to being my size.

I’ve dealt with a lot in my life.

It is my job to sell these fighters. I’m now a business partner of the UFC. What I do directly affects my paycheck. I try my best. I just don’t want people to be indifferent.

If there’s an opportunity for me to compete at something, I’m there.

You can love me, you can hate me, but just don’t be indifferent. Care about it enough to watch.

I think that Amanda Nunes and Julianna Pena and Valentina Shevchenko… they’ve showed how much this level has gone up in female fighting in a very short period of time.

You don’t get to the highest levels of the sport without having the basics in order.

I went and worked at a TV station in Stillwater. I was actually account manager for commercial accounts, selling ad space and everything.

Guys play basketball and get hurt, and that’s probably the easiest sport on the planet. We’re actually fighting every day. We’re wrestling; we’re grappling.

Dan Henderson, even when you’re close and he hits you from very, very close, you can feel how heavy his hands are. His hands are pretty powerful.

I don’t mind playing spoiler.

There are ways to win fights, and sometimes you don’t always choose the easiest way to win a fight.

I will tell you with 100 percent confidence, Jon Jones is not deep in my head. The fact he actually thinks that, it makes me smile every day.

My confidence comes from me, not from Jon Jones. I can’t draw my confidence from another person.

I’ve done nothing but show up and fight, go to work inside the Octagon, outside the Octagon, and do things right. But people want to talk about me and discredit me.

You train, you fight, you show respect at the end of it.

It’s all matchups, and I knew that I matched up well against ‘Rumble‘ Johnson.

Reach, and all that other stuff, doesn’t play as big a part in MMA as it does in boxing. Guys don’t really fight with their length all that much, because they have to worry about the takedown or kicks. They have to worry about so many other things that they can’t just fight real tall.

If you truly believe in yourself and your skills, most times, it’s enough.

I have to be smart. You cannot be going in there, trying to go forward and pressure guys, and be taking damage and getting hurt on the way to doing it.

My resume, my career, and my legacy in this sport means more to me then collecting some checks.

You don’t quit after you get beat. You pick yourself up, and you start rebuilding to accomplish your goals.

I’m so bad at baseball, I can’t even hit now.

When you got a guy that has purpose, now your in a dog fight.

I have definitely worked on that… being efficient and also being smarter with my pressure.

I went through a training camp; I worked extremely hard. I prepared for UFC 200. This was the big one. This one meant everything to me.

You have to be a champion in all facets of life.

My daughter passed away in 2003.

I think after I beat Ryan Bader, he should have to go get beat up by Anthony Johnson for being so disrespectful to Anthony Johnson.

Gustafsson is a stud, man. He’s a good fighter.

Fvery time Anthony and I are supposed to fight, the lines come out, and it’s like we’re dead even. It’s like people don’t know what to make of a fight between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson, when in reality, it should be very easy to know what to make of a fight between me and Anthony Johnson.

You don’t see many Jon Jones’s.

My little girl‘s in Heaven. She‘s my angel, and I can draw from that.

Wrestling is a hard sport, but it’s only a sport.

Just being in the gym every day with someone with goals in common is special.

I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder. It kind of drives me. It’s something that allows me to train harder, train longer, work better.

When you look at my record at 10-0 as a professional and look at Jon Jones’ record when he was 10-0, who was his toughest guy? Stephan Bonnar, and he did not finish him. I have fought higher-caliber opponents at this stage in my career than Jon did in his at 9-1; His tenth fight was Matt Hammil.

I believe that I will represent this sport in the best light possible. I won’t mess it up. I won’t get myself in any trouble.

Every day I wake up and I realize how lucky I am to be living this life.

I’m not a guy that really likes to pile onto somebody. Doesn’t really matter who it is.

My confidence comes from my fights and my training.

It’s like I cannot separate myself from Jon Jones.

I know what I’ve done, and I know who I am.

How can you train if you’re constantly worried about getting injured?

You have to be very vocal about being willing to fight anyone.

I think I’m as good if not better than everyone else.