Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Mike Tyson is a good boxer, but he is not the best fighter. I am the best fighter.
If Gerard Gordeau would have won the first UFC, everybody would be learning savate.
In any professional level competition, soccer players, you've got to know when to stop.
There's so much talent in Brazil, so many guys that will probably never get discovered.
You have tons of talents everywhere you go, so you can't be stuck to only one promotion.
The UFC was my home and will always be my home. I helped creating and building that home.
In a street fight there is no time-limit, no weight division, you don't choose your opponent.
My Jiu Jitsu is with the gi. It's the real style of Jiu Jitsu, it's with the gi and I fight MMA.
A lot of fighters complain, 'Man he's five pounds heavier than me.' Really? It doesn't matter, man.
If you trained jiu-jitsu his whole life, why would you trade punches on fight night against a striker?
When you're a fighter, you have to be ready all the time. There's no 'I need a month.' It's always time.
Kids wake up in the morning and say, 'I want to be a UFC fighter one day,' just like they do in baseball.
Face life's challenges with confidence, dare to pursue your dreams and live to the fullest just as my father did.
The armlock is an armlock, a choke is a choke. How you set it up - is different. Everybody have their personal style.
Gracie Jiu Jitsu is the most complete art of self defense there is out there. You don't have to be strong. You don't have to be fast.
McGregor is taking Muhammad Ali's model. He can say whatever he wants but he's got to prove it. If he doesn't prove it, his career is going to be short.
Wouldn't you love to see Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield go one more time? It's not like just one of them has aged. They've both aged. They're both icons.
The art of Gracie jiu-jitsu is to learn how to defend yourself in any situation, not to score points, not for tournament style. It's for a street-fight situation.
Sometimes you watch a tournament with a point system, and it's not the best fighter that wins. It's the guy who scores more points and then he runs away and hides.
I've trained boxing in the past to learn the distance, trained wrestling to understand how he would take me down, but I won't get there to fight my opponent's game.
I get stopped at the airports by just everyday people that are not even fans of the MMA and they say how they have seen me fight. Its very humbling and also rewarding.
Martial arts in general were not made for a tournament, for points system. Martial arts were made to defend yourself in the street fight situation, not to score points.
Bellator and Viacom want to give fans exciting fights and enable fighters to continue to grow and most importantly provide for their family, and it's something I want to be a part of.
I do jiu-jitsu my whole life, so why would I try to stand and bang with Mike Tyson? I'm going to learn boxing in six months because my opponent is good in boxing? That makes no sense.
GSP is at the top of my list in knowing how to use strategy, how to bring an opponent out of his game, how to beat a guy without taking a beating. And he's good in standup and good at grappling.
I have such a big family, sometimes, I was wondering, when is it going to be my turn? There's always a brother who's older, younger, bigger, stronger, faster, I was like, 'hey, give me a chance guys.'
The greatest tribute you can to pay to my father is to continue to train and share Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, remembering to never lose sight of the fact that what you do off the matt counts more than what you do on the matt.
I did a seminar once in Pennsylvania when there was big snow, road construction, a big flood and just one person showed up. I said, 'No problem, I'll do it.' If there's one or 100 on the mat, the juice is still there.
My brother, who created the UFC, had a vision. He knew that people wanted to see who was the best fighter. People have curiosity, what style was the best? Boxing, wrestling, Gracie jiujitsu? It was a quest to find out.
My father had nine kids, seven boys and two girls, and my uncle had 21 kids, 11 boys and 10 girls. They had the opportunity to teach the art of Gracie Jiu Jitsu and that's how we got involved from a young age. It's in the blood.
I travel seven months a year, so it's a lot of hotels and airplanes. I teach about three hours a day. I always go for a run. I try to lift some weights if I have the time and the strength. But running and teaching, that's my life.
That's why I like Demian Maia and Fabricio Werdum. Demian will take you down and do his game. Werdum learned the stand-up to know what's coming, but he never stopped using his jiu-jitsu. He will clinch, take you down and submit you.
My number one recommendations for part time grapplers is: no alcohol - no smoking - Follow the Gracie diet. The reason I say that is because smoking and alcohol put a lot of effort on your body. Your lungs. Your liver. Your stomach. These things will make you suffer, man.
Jiu-Jitsu is the bond or styles all between all the other styles. Take Jiu-Jitsu out, a boxer is just a boxer, a kickboxer is just a kickboxer. Take Jiu-Jitsu out of the wrestling - what is he going to do, take the person down and? There's no finishing holds, there's no striking.
When Scott Coker first mentioned to me that Ken Shamrock wanted to fight I said, 'Thank you.' I played a little hard to get, but for sure I knew we had to do the third fight with Ken; there was no doubt. He still insisted on fighting me. I guess the guy cannot sleep for 22 years.
My second fight at UFC 1, I fought Ken Shamrock. In the fight I choked him. As soon as he tapped, I let go. He tried to continue, but the ref got kind of stuck like, 'should I let it go or stop the fight.' That's when I looked at the ref and I said, let it go, we're going to continue.
OK, if he's a grappler, good for me, I know what to do. If he's a kickboxer, I gotta get in a clinch and move a certain way. If he's a karate man, he moves a different way, but I'm still going to have to clinch. So, a sumo wrestler, I have to clinch. It's just, how I get there, how I move it.
My grandfather was doing business with a Japanese man. In exchange of good relationship the man taught my uncles the art of jiu jitsu. My father couldn't do it because he was very weak, he couldn't do one press-up, so he just sat back and watched, and memorised. What he did was add leverage into the moves.
I like guys who know how to implement a strategy. The ones who make a fight look easy. But there's no easy fight, even if you win in 30 seconds, that only means you were able to execute your strategy correctly and induced your opponent to make a mistake. Those are the champions. That's why they are the champions.
Like when I fought Akebono - six foot eight, 490 pounds. Before the fight, everyone's like 'Man, you're crazy. You're out of your mind. How are you going to fight a guy that big, there's no way you can take him down. You cannot punch him out. You're out of your mind.' After the fight, everybody was like 'Oh come on, he's big and fat.' Really?
People that don’t know and hear about it, they start to think that all the people that do jiu-jitsu smokes pot, is a drug addict. Here I am fighting for something good, and the guy is fighting for something bad, in my point of view. I can’t agree with that, what he represents. Nothing to do with his jiu-jitsu, his school. If you want to do something like that, do it in private. Keep it to yourself.