Being in the wrestling business, it was a whole lot to deal with in a short amount of time. I went from amateur wrestling one minute to, the next minute, I'm traveling the world, and I'm on the road 250 days a year.

I already knew a lot about the ground aspects of MMA, being a wrestler, but there was so much more. There was kicking, punching, and other things I wish I could have done as a wrestler. It really stoked my interest.

The kind of wrestler that's going to do well in a combat style event like MMA is one that can explode through - doesn't need to spend time on the mat - hit his opponent, get him off his feet, and get on top quickly.

I think the reasons I retired stay the same. I don't want to change my style. I can't take a punch like I used to for whatever reason. I've heard all sorts of theories as to why that would happen, but I can't do it.

I feel like I can submit Khabib, but feel like I'm going to stop him. I don't know how it's going to happen, but I'm either going to knock him out or I'm going to submit him. I'm going to finish Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Its not just about competition: it's my life, my lifestyle. So I train every day, and I feel very good, because sometimes training is like meditations for me; it's a good escape to me to the problems for everything.

With mindfulness, we can be with the experience in more immediate way. When we find ourselves flooded with an emotion that's come after the judgement, we've often missed the very judgment that triggered the emotion.

I'm fighting hard; I'm training hard. I'm still walking over people and stepping over people to get where I'm going, and I would really like to give back, especially to my mom, who was there for me when I was a kid.

I really worked hard to get myself in shape, just from a physical standpoint when you're able to bring your body down and have the discipline to get into shape the way I was, it's really a spiritual journey as well.

I think that going on any reality show is not good for your mental health because you behave differently when you are being watched, and you constantly have an extra bit of awareness of what's going on all the time.

I remember recording over my mom's cassettes and putting on 'Thuggish Ruggish Bone,' and my mom be like, 'What the hell?' Being that I was born in '82, I've been listening to all of the classics throughout my years.

One reason why I started fighting was because of my family, and with that, you gotta pay the bills, but I enjoy beating people up in the first place, you know, so it plays hand in hand. Beating up, and getting money!

I'm a warrior at heart. A lot of other people do it for money, or they want stardom and fame because they want to be famous or they just want to be on TV, and they just happen to have the skills to be a good fighter.

I think the key is never being satisfied with your skills and you have to constantly learn. I say this all the time, I sound like a broken record, but if you are not getting better in this sport you are getting worse

Naturally, when you're a younger brother with two older brothers, I mean, they're going to beat on you, and they're going to make you... you're going to grow up differently. You're going to turn into a little animal.

I don't want to be in this sport just to participate. I want to be in this to win, and that's what motivates me every day to break down barriers and to get better every time and to exceed my limits and to win fights.

For as long as I can remember, our family has been huge Cardinals fans. My grandpa is a personal friend of Whitey Herzog's; they were neighbors for decades. Our love and support of the Cardinals definitely runs deep.

It's sad because I worked so hard to be able to provide for my kids and give them a better life than I ever had for myself but I can't give them the one thing which they really need more than anything, and that's me.

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.

The promotions put fighters against each other, and they don't want to pay anything to them. If you refuse to fight, the promoter shows up - and sometimes he wants to show off more than the fighters. This is a shame.

Regardless of how tough you think you are, regardless of how good you think your chin is, we're all only one connected punch away from being hurt, and you've just got to hope your chin holds up and your body holds up.

Look what happened when I fought Anderson Silva. It can't possibly get worse than that. I've already seen the bottom and it wasn't that bad. I made it through. I survived. It's fighting. It's not the end of the world.

When introducing a character, you're usually better off sticking with broad strokes. The important thing at that point is not what color hair someone has or how tall they are, but rather, what kind of person they are.

I love Twitter in particular because it allows me to grow and see how people feel about the decisions I make. My followers, they're always pretty honest with me. I love the honesty I get. I also find motivation in it.

It's like when your parents tell you what to do, but it's not until you go through it yourself that you see why they said what they said. Sometimes you just have to go through things in life to become a better person.

I just started training with the best fighters in the world trying to get better. I was a pretty good athlete so I did pretty well with the team and that gave me confidence that I would be able to compete with people.

Whenever people call me the first female this or that, it doesn't make it more special because no one in front of me wanted the same job. I've always wanted weird stuff and enjoyed things differently than other girls.

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.

I was in a lecture about concussions and of the 10 symptoms the guy mentioned, I had eight. The symptoms would be, for example, mood swings, getting angry very fast, forgetting some things, having difficulty sleeping.

That's why I love wrestling: because there's so many different people. I love everybody, from Hornswoggle to the Great Khali to Seth Rollins, to The Bludgeon Brothers. I love everything about wrestling because of that.

If I was mentoring a young fighter, I'd tell him to spend more time on boxing. That doesn't mean I would ignore kickboxing - you still need to learn the defenses - but in stand-up, it's hard to beat good, solid boxing.

Very normal trajectory of a fighter's career - you start out fighting at the YMCA. You move on to the dog park. You get into a coliseum. On your way out, you go back to the YMCA, and then you finish up at the dog park.

My first contract I was offered by the UFC, or my second contract, it was 1-and-1, 2-and-2, 3-and-3. That's $12,000 for the year. Don't complain to me about fighter pay. It was $12,000 for a year, and it was exclusive.

I would like to apologize to Brock Lesnar, his family, the UFC and the UFC fans for my stupid remarks. I respect Brock, all the other fighters, and the sport of mixed martial arts. I’m sorry that I stepped out of line.

I've done all my bike circuit cardio workouts when I know I gotta push my numbers higher and I gotta be better than I was before. It sucks. Your body doesn't want to do it, but I've done that. I know I have that in me.

I've always been a defensive wrestler, but when I go in there in the fights, I get so caught up in trying to knock people's heads off that wrestling goes out the window when you're throwing punches and kicks and stuff.

Everyone's talking about Phil Davis and what he did in college. It's an accomplishment to win an NCAA title. I don't want to discredit that. But I believe if I would have wrestled him in college, I would have beat him.

I'm just fighting a lot of high-level guys. I feel everyone is trying to be tactical, everyone is trying to put their A-game out there, and I have to find a way to win. I'm all about moving on and trying to get better.

Each person may see a fight in different ways... They can see more to a primal way. Others they can see in a pure artistic way... For me I see the pure artistic way, the way that a true martial artist can show his art.

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.

I've fought the guys that didn't do anything for me, didn't move the needle a bit, people weren't excited for it, I was having trouble getting excited for it. I've fought those guys because that's what was given to me.

I think motocross is a much more dangerous sport than what we do. These guys are flying through the air at high speeds rising their lives. What we do in the octagon is not even close to what these guys do on the course.

Cage Warriors is a brilliant organisation. They're doing great things for European MMA, and they're giving the platform for guys like me who came through. They're vital. I'm forever grateful for the opportunities I got.

The fans are the ones that really tell the tale, and I think they speak very loudly about where I stand in pro wrestling. I don't think that there are too many people who would tell you that I don't deserve to be there.

People like myself have been pushing, competing, and promoting female MMA for a long time, and to see the fans accept a female division in the UFC so quickly is vindication that all that hard work amounted to something.

It's nice that fans want to see me fight. It definitely helps and gets everyone excited. It gets the UFC excited, and they are quick to put me back in there. But I really just focus on myself and getting ready to fight.

That Dutch style of kickboxing, that's great. That's hard. It's very intimidating to stand across from, but you know it's very rhythmic on the beat. It's just something: It looks scary, but it's nothing to be scared of.

When I was in college, I was a landscaper. Other than that, coaching has been my life and my job. A lot of people like coaching college, but I would never do it again. There are too many NCAA bylaws, rules and politics.

God bless Neymar because this boy has changed the lives of kids in Brazil. A lot of children watch him, believe they can be the next Neymar. Sometimes, you have a great opportunity to change and impact the lives of kids.

The difference between the successful and the troubled is not error-free living; it is that by discovering and implementing a life calling, the successful stand on their pile of trash while the troubled sit under theirs.

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