Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I was never a playboy, you know? But it's easy to say that because it's just a stereotype. 'OK, this boy did college so he must be a playboy.'
My wife never comes to watch me fight, she gets too nervous, so do my family. They will only watch it on the television after they know the outcome.
I don't sell myself. I am what I am. I'm a role model for a lot of people, for my kids. I don't want to just change because I want to make more money.
There are lots of jiu-jitsu fighters who finish fights and have good MMA jiu-jitsu, but I think I've applied techniques which I can teach other people.
People always go to the ground with me trying to just hold me. They stall and wait for the referee to stand them back up so they can start it all over.
The striking game is always a lottery game, so I prefer to take the safe situation. Submission is the best for me. I'm the guy looking for it all the time.
You can trade money for other good things and that's nice, but it's not the first thing that matters to me. I'm a martial artist and I have other priorities.
When you get asked if you want the title, you really need to push for that. That's why I want to do it my style, not do it so loud, but I want to fight for the title.
I think that people believe in lies and they repeat the lies so many times that the people start to believe, 'ah, Demian is not fighting for the title because he doesn't sell.'
It's obvious that I want to reach Cerrone's win record, I know that's important for my career. Those milestones last forever, even if someone passes you later, they are forever.
Things can change quickly in the UFC. I lost to Nate Marquardt in my first loss as a middleweight and then I defeated Dan Miller and fought for the title against Anderson Silva.
I think sometimes the fighters aren't very clear on things, and even myself, I'm a fighter, a lot of fighters make mistakes about working their image and how they market themselves.
My loss to Marquardt was just one of those things. I made a mistake and got caught. I think I had a lot more to offer in that fight, but he caught me before I had a chance to show it.
The difference between me and other black belts is that I truly believe that jujitsu can be used in all aspects of MMA, because it was created to do that. If you train hard, it will work.
Sonnen, to me, he's a great athlete, but he created that image so much for himself that people don't think he's that good. They just think he talks. So I think it's a risk you run when you do that.
If we fought like the old days, with no time limit, it would be better to work. We only have five minutes to work per round so it's complicated, especially because everybody knows that my ground game is good.
When I was 16, we get kicked out of our house because my mother and my father were separated, so we didn't have money to pay. We got kicked out and had to live with my grandmother, sleeping in the living room, for many years.
People learn. If you market somebody, let's say GSP, a lot of people were saying he was doing boring fights because he was taking the guys down and controlling them, but he was winning, and he was the guy who selling the most.
A lot of people love what I do and a lot of people don't like or hate my style, so it's external - I really don't care about that. I'm happy with the people that appreciate it, but I'm not unhappy with the people that don't like it.
In the 1930s, in boxing, to be the heavyweight champion of the world was really, really big, people wanted to see the toughest guys. But what I've figured out now, in the '50s, '60s, boxing started to become more entertainment than sport.
When I got into UFC, it was an unbelievable feeling. When I got inside the cage, 'Big' John McCarthy - a guy who I was watching back when Royce Gracie was fighting - was the referee. I was able to earn a quick submission win. It was perfect.
When I fight, nobody boos. Everybody likes it. Everyone cheers for me. I'm happy about that, because I'm one of the guys who is putting the grappling and jiu-jitsu on the level where people are interested in the technique. I can get people excited about it.
Don't get me wrong - I love going to academy every day and training as hard as I can; I love to learn. But I have other plans. When you are in the UFC, you gotta save 80 percent of your time for that. I want to do other nice stuff, other things that give me pleasure also.
MMA is pretty tough on your mind because it's a sport that's not just about winning. You really want to win bad, but it's tough when you lose. You get beaten. And it really messes with your ego, because nobody wants to get beaten by other people physically. It's not just a game. You get beaten physically.
I had my first professional fight was in 2001 in Venezuela - it was also my first international trip away from Brazil. It was a great experience. Then in 2005, I went to Finland and won. The next year there was a tournament in Brazil with three fights in one night. I was the underdog and won all three fights.
I started training judo when I was 5 years old. I didn't know much. My mom just took me and my brother to do some judo because we were very energetic. We did that for a couple of years. I don't know why we stopped, but I came back to try other forms of martial arts like kung fu and karate when I was 12 and never stopped.
When I watched the first fight between Woodley and Thompson, and I want to make clear that I really admire both guys, for me the fight was really boring at UFC 205 because nobody pulled the trigger for three rounds. The fourth round there was a scramble and that was really exciting, but then the fifth round was so-so again.
MMA's not like a game like basketball, for example, that if you're winning by 30, 40 points and there's just five minutes left, you can do whatever you want because the guy isn't going to beat you. In MMA, you can get beaten in the last minute of the fight, or the last second of the fight, so sometimes you've got to be safe.
I'd like to be remembered for being the one responsible for adapting Brazilian jiu-jitsu for modern MMA. For what I've learned from fence work and some ground positions. Lots of details I developed after years and years studying them, testing what worked on the mat, against the fence, what kept opponents on the ground, control situations.
I don't like to have a strategy going into a fight. If he has a good right hand or a good kick or good submissions then I'll try to avoid that, but I like to be in a fight and I like to go into the fight. Even in jiu-jitsu I didn't think of pulling this guy into guard or take him down because I like to go into the fight and see what happens.