I always say if you can't knock someone out with four ounce gloves on there is something wrong with you.

I had lots of fun; I was in the boy scouts, I went camping. I just used to mess around like a normal kid.

The most important thing is to stay fresh - physically and mentally - and to also avoid injury of course.

I'm an explosive fighter so I've always got to have that strength, but you've got to mix it with endurance.

I think everyone knows that I keep myself to myself and I don't get involved in trash talk or anything else.

Fighting isn't an ordinary career, so you have to allow your body time to recover in between training sessions.

I was introduced to money as a teenager, my friends had nice things. It came naturally to me to try and make money.

It would be great to fight on UFC 200 obviously. It's going to be an historic event but the card is getting full quickly.

It's always great fighting in front of familiar faces and not having to travel and deal with jet-lag and all of that stuff.

Mixed martial arts has small windows of opportunity and there's always new faces coming through, so it's easy to forget you.

At school, I was a lot more advanced compared to the other kids but I didn't like authority and was kicked out for fighting.

I'm a 'come forward' kind of guy, I will never fight any other way and I don't think I could learn anything different either.

David Haye was the perfect opponent for me because he was a small heavyweight with a big name and we were about the same size.

When you're in a fight camp, you're working your body harder than normal and it's important to still look after yourself and to relax.

I used to fight in school. I was a rough, athletic child. I always knew I could fight and, watching UFC, I was always fascinated by it.

We used to go to the fairground, and there's that punchable thing that measures your power. It was from one of those that I knew I could punch.

That's what it's all about in MMA, we're not the highest paid athletes in the world, so when you can get the big money fights you have to take them.

On fight day, I usually have peanut butter and porridge in the morning; bananas and a nice fruit salad. Then, as the day goes on, I'll have some carbs.

But the thing about Brazilian fans is that they respect top fighters and I will win them over. When my hand is raised I believe they will cheer for me.

I'm not bothered about where I'm ranked in the world. I'm just worried about fighting the best people in the world and being a natural, original champion.

Now I've got near the top, I can see the games that people play. I thought everyone wanted to fight the best, and earn title shots, but it's not like that.

Some fighters enjoy the limelight. I get nervous, I mess up when I'm trying to explain things, because I'm a fighter pure and simple, and not really a talker.

It's been frustrating. Since I've broken into the top five, I've seen the politics of fighters dodging fights, cherry picking fights and this that and the other.

My earliest sporting memory is probably going judo when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My dad and my brother did it for a couple of years when I was young, in Nigeria.

I'm not really into supplements, I mostly try to get it all from my food. I take multivitamins, vitamin D - which is really important - zinc and magnesium, but that's about it.

My diet is just the normal stuff that you know is healthy - nice, clean food - meats, vegetables, fresh juices. I don't have too many sauces, I just like really plain chicken, broccoli: all clean stuff.

When you're away from home for a fight camp it's the simple things that you miss the most. For me, that's laying on the sofa with my daughters and spending quality family time and small things like that.

A lot of people think they're better than they are and it can be very hard to get found out when you come up against a good fighter, getting dominated in every single way - every area you thought you were good in.

Stylistically, every fight in the division is a hard fight. Lyoto Machida is unorthodox, Jon Jones is long and tall with good wrestling, Ryan Bader has good wrestling. You can't pick one and say, 'I want to fight him.'

As soon as I found MMA, I knew that this is what I wanted to do, and it gave me focus because I was good at it anyway, and it gave me a goal to reach. I kept winning my fights, and it's given me a goal and a career opportunity.

I like exciting fighters - Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo. I like all the great fighters, Cain Velasquez, all the champions. They're so good at what they do. I just admire people who are good at what they do and people you can watch and learn from.

I don't know anything about CM Punk. I'd never even heard of him until he was mentioned in UFC. I wouldn't know him if I walked past him in the street, I don't know... he might be a good wrestler but there are people in the UFC who are just good wrestlers.

It's easy to say when you're on the outside and when you're the coach or for people to say, 'Oh, you should have done this, you should have done that.' But when you're in there in front of thousands of people and you get hit and you want to win the fight, it's totally different.

When I was ranked No. 11 or 12, they offered me Gustafsson who was the No. 1 contender, and I didn't hesitate. I was No. 10 when I fought Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson who was the No. 1 contender. We accept fights, but not everyone is like that, I'm beginning to find out. It's not right.

Yeah, like '300,' I've probably watched it 300 times. It's one of my favourite films. I've just finished watching 'Spartacus,' another great series. I relate a lot to those kind of films. I think most fighters should relate to those films. It just seems natural. I am Spartacus, I am Leonidas, I am the lead role in those films.

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