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I was champion in Dream at middleweight, I'm champion in Strikeforce at light heavyweight, and my final goal is to be heavyweight champion of the world.
I believe that style-wise, matchup-wise, I matchup much better against Anderson Silva than Jon Jones, but it doesn't mean that I'm scared to fight at 205.
I defeated Dan Henderson, he's making tons more money than me. I defeated Mark Hunt. How is it possible Mark Hunt is making $800,000 with a record of 10-10?
I won the belt in DREAM, I won the belt in Strikeforce, every fight was just a fight, it wasn't something special, it just was getting in the ring and fighting.
After doing boxing a little bit, I knew that I wanted to achieve what the other boxers were achieving: the championship and whatever comes with the championships.
The more fights I have the more relaxed I get in cage or ring. It's all about experience. It's something that I try to do because I fight better when I am relaxed.
I have fights where I thought I'm going to destroy the guy and then I had a very tough fight, I had fights where the guy's a big name and I win in the first minute.
I have a lot of nicknames. They called me Kingo in Japan, they called me the Young Vagabond, but that sounds bad, then Soldier of Fortune, now they call me the Dream Catcher.
With the UFC it's like, you make okay money, and only if you're the champion do you make good money. So they're keeping the fighters deliberately poor so they'll keep fighting.
People like crap. It doesn't matter. I think if you have a big mouth and you perform so-so, it is what it is. People are going to notice you more. Nice guys come last. Let's say it like that.
There are four seasons in Iran, so you can go winter skiing, you can go in summer to the beach... it's not a real tourism place, but it's a nice country if you have family and friends to visit there.
I cannot come and suddenly put on a persona. Like, I cannot be Mike Tyson. When you saw him it was raw, it was intense, 'I want to hurt you.' But now everybody tries it. I don't enjoy that. It's not real.
I see some fighters lose very badly, but still they get more praise or they're not overrated. They're just good fighters in a lot of people's eyes. But I feel like one loss with King Mo, it made me a very bad fighter somehow.
When you constantly claim you are the best, people start to believe that. I see that happen a lot. You can convince a lot of people by talking, even if that has nothing to do with your actual performances. But that's not my thing.
I don't want to tell sad stories about myself. We may not have had a lot to spend when I grew up, but my childhood was good. The public likes to hear a dramatic story. They want a star to rise, have a meltdown and then return to greatness. Very American.
I've been working on wrestling aside from MMA. That is something that I wasn't doing in the past so I'm getting more confident in my wrestling. I learned that I didn't know a lot about takedowns, it's a really big gap and I'm catching up and learning a lot.
My dad would take me to judo a few times a week. I got all these things that I was able to do once we were set up in Holland. Everything was taken care of. I think Holland is a country that takes care of their people - one of the best countries in the world.
I fought a long time ago in Canada, I fought a Croatian guy, I don't remember his name, but there I had a size advantage. At the end, I explained to him about cutting weight. He didn't know about weight-cutting, so I explained to him, and I was bigger than him at that time.
People can't always judge by the records. Maybe a guy has 11 wins in MMA but he's fought the best. Someone else has 11 wins but he's fought nobody. It's a difficult sport because someone can be a champion in four fights, look at Brock Lesnar. So records don't always mean a lot.
I can't put on an act, so I try to be one of the best fighters so at least I get paid. Let's say Michael Bisping, he wasn't that great. He was losing, winning, but he was making a lot of money, and that was because he was outspoken and from the U.K. But not everyone can be like that. So, I tried to be the best I could.
I was born in Iran, my parents are Armenian. We fled from Iran to the Netherlands when I was eight years old. We had a lot of family and friends in Iran, so it was hard to leave, especially for my parents. But we managed to settle well in the Netherlands, after a year in refugee camps. But I understood it was a process.
Maybe at the end of my career, I could do some fights at heavyweight, when I'm older and not cutting weight. When I'm in my prime, I should stay at my weight class when I'm at my best, but let's say the end of my career, I want to just make an extra buck and not taking it too serious, yeah, I'll get fat and I'll fight, sure.
I want to be healthy when I quit, and I want to quit while I'm on my top. A lot of fighters continue because probably they need the money. My goal was invest, get out of the game healthy and secure. I feel like that's a real champion. Not someone who gave it all in the ring, and then at the end of his life, they don't have anything.
I think with fighting you have to have a desire to achieve something. You never see a rich kid get to the top of any combat sport because they don't have the drive. All the great boxers come from the ghetto. They all had nothing. They have the desire, the hunger but the rich kid is not going to get punched in the face. Why would they?