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I try to cancel out every possibility of losing the fight, and this runs through my head all day long. I'm seeing myself become smashed in the face, cut, or being submitted or being knocked out in so many different ways all day long.
I don't shy away from any questions. I'm not scared of any question. I'll give you an answer. A lot of people are scared of having actual opinions out there. People are so scared of criticism... I'm not scared of people disliking me.
The learning curve, and the things that you have to adapt to on a daily basis in the UFC, is pretty crazy. It's a huge burden for anybody to have: not just the fighting itself but learning how to deal with the other responsibilities.
Some of the things I've had to overcome in my past, fighting helped me deal with a lot of struggles. Obstacles in life don't make you a great fighter, but fighting - or, I should say, martial arts - helps you overcome your obstacles.
Yeah of course, it's a lot of emotions, a lot of different thoughts, it's a big thing, the biggest I've done in my life so far but still it's just a fight for me, I go in there and have fun basically. I'm doing something I love to do.
Change, even if unwelcome, forces us to reevaluate what our best options are. Those times of transitions are great opportunities to look for recurring patterns in your life and make adjustments to build on the good and reduce the bad.
I used my Karate footwork to control the distance, and I use is as a penetration drill that I do, this is my speciality, the way I penetrate on people, the explosiveness and the timing. It all started with Kyokoshin and Sports Karate.
Nick Diaz is a champion so he's got the spirit that comes with it. So he's not going to give up mentally. You see a lot of guys give up mentally and that's why they get knocked out or submitted. They give up mentally before they lose.
We've all been there, where it seems like all the cards are stacked against you, and you can't seem to do anything right. But you still have to say to yourself, 'You know what? That's not going to stop me. I still have to find a way.'
You know, I'm never really 100-percent in any of those fights, because it's so hard to have perfect preparation for fighting and cutting weight and making 170 pounds, and being in the best shape for training camp and to make that cut.
Look, there’s no such thing as the master division to me. I’m going to compete as an adult until I realize I can no longer handle the new kids’ pace. Right now–at 28 years of age, Ican’t see myself stopping until I’m 34, 35 years old.
The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it’ll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.
The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it'll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.
Donald Trump was really cool. I think a lot of people don't understand him. He brings so much media attention to anything he does. He's a proven success. I think people should listen to what he says a little more than focusing on hair.
I thought I would be laying hardwood floors in Colorado - a construction worker. Middle class or working class, that's where I was! I just fought because I loved it. It was so fun! Being able to go in there and outthink your opponents.
Dana White came out very often in public saying I'm this and that; I'm sure it's also to play with my ego, to make me, for example, come out of retirement and say 'Oh ok, I'll fight for peanuts.' No, I'm not like that. I know the game.
People want to see real skill level, real Jiu Jitsu, real boxing, put together and mixed up. They want to see mixed martial arts. They don't want to see five minutes of holding. I think there should be points deducted when you do that.
Rampage Jackson came to the UFC with a brain. He came to the UFC with a huge following from being in Asia with Pride. He was a personality before he came to the UFC. You don't see them putting marketing money behind him to blow him up.
My parents named me after Uriah the Hittite, one of King David's mighty men in the Old Testament of the Bible, who was known for his fearlessness. I've thought about it, and there may be a connection between my name and my personality.
Wrestlers tend to do good in MMA because they tend to be just some tough guys. It's not a karate situation where they grew up their whole life punching the air; in a wrestling situation, you grab a hold of another human being every day.
My brother was probably one of the toughest kids from my neighborhood and he didn't make it easy on me. He made sure I was getting beat up as much as possible growing up. If he wasn't beating me up, he was making his friends beat me up.
In the grand scheme of things, fighting people in the cage is not that big of a deal, I know. It's not a hero profession even though its treated as one. It's not being a soldier or police officer or paramedic of firefighter or anything.
The only way to beat Georges St-Pierre, there's two ways: knock him out, or do the same thing he does to everyone else, and guess what, my wrestling is good enough to make sure I can do what he does to everyone else. I promise you that.
I worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer. I did demolition work, was a postman, was a tiler, a plasterer. I even sold double-glazing door-to-door. But I always dreamed of being a world champion, first of all as a boxer.
My fear delivered one of the great lessons of my life: That someone without fear can’t push himself. He can’t get better. He can’t transform negatives into positives. He can’t open his world to creativity and invention, or even progress.
Politics and religion are topics that people tend to stay away from in their conversations, because they're polarising. But they are important topics, so they should be discussed the most, so we should know each other's opinions on them.
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.
I don't want to go that route where I'm going into fights dehydrated. I used to fight at 170 pounds. I was 10-0 at 170 with eight knockouts. I'm not going to listen to somebody from the outside tell me what weight I should be fighting at.
Fans and reporters, they don't get that ever since I was five, all I've done is competed against something. I always had a goal. Then, whenever you hit a point, there's a point in an athlete's life where it's like, 'Is it still worth it?'
I would love to see Bellator come up and offer an opportunity for competition. Then, fighters could negotiate contracts, and they would not be limited to having only one opportunity, one option, where you have to take what's given to you.
Conscience is all about using discernment, discrimination and assessment, rather than looking to the rather crude form of advice from the judge that's mostly attacking our sense of worth or value, instead of giving us helpful information.
I've been the best fighter in the world at kickboxing - they can't take that away from me - but when I started in MMA, I realized how great this sport is. It's the ultimate combat sport, and that's why I want to be the world's best at it.
I get asked that a lot and I always go back to my mom's, 'No one has the right to beat you.' I take that to every venue that I'm in. She would say, 'Someone has to be the best in the world, why not you?' I always try to keep that in mind.
One of the guys I've always said was one of my favorite fighters to watch was Sakuraba. He's always been really creative. He's got a great attitude, and I think he has the right approach of just going in there and letting it all hang out.
I tend to keep my suit look casual but I like a good pocket square. It can change the look of any suit and give it an 'old school' feel. My preference is to make the square unique - different from the tie and suit color, so it really pops.
My losses and my victories are in the past. I think of the future. After a fight is over, it's in the past. I always have to go back to the gym and train to improve in all areas, winning or losing. I think I can always do better next time.
You have to have good training partners and not people who crank on things. There's a difference between cranking on it and catching it, holding it and making the guy work out. You have to be selective with your training partners for sure.
Because of who I am and what I've accomplished, everything is pretty much given to me. People cater to me all the time. It's almost like I've lost that edge - lost the ability to want something and then put in the work necessary to get it.
Anytime you spar at a new dojo, whether it's in Japan, Brazil, or Thailand, the fighters come after the new guy. It's a way to test yourself against the best and to sharpen your technical skills and push yourself to be the best you can be.
Of course, having a lack of emotions saves you from doing a big crying scene in the movie or something. I would try to remove myself from any situation before a scene or something like that, and just sit and think about absolutely nothing.
Mixed martial arts - there's just been a lot of trash talking and things like that. People, I feel like, aren't really being true to themselves or being honest. I don't know, maybe that's what they feel they need to do to entertain things.
Every kid dreams of playing in the NFL or MLB and I was that 27-year-old that dreamed of fighting in the UFC. It was kind of surreal to see that I have actually accomplished what I set out to do. It's better than I could have ever imagined.
Not a lot of people or pros in this game know how to train correctly. That's why they don't have a long career. Their body gets banged up. They get into a rhythm of heavy sparring and heavy work, but through that, they're limiting movement.
U.S. wrestling is more of a scrambling style where guys take a lot of risks. You could watch a match in the states and see a score of 18-12. There is going to be a lot of action, transitions and guys going back and forth and trading points.
I grew up in East St. Louis so I wanted to play baseball as a kid. Then I moved to Nebraska and became a football fan and wanted to play football. But I've always been fighting. Growing up in East St. Louis was hard. You had to fight there.
I get more relaxed. I get looser. I get more technical, I get faster, and you get to see way more of my game in the later rounds. In sparring, a lot of my best rounds are my third and my fourth. My fifth rounds are sometimes my best of all.
My great fight was against Liddell. I lost via decision but it was one of the fights that I most enjoyed to be part of. He was tough, had heavy hands, I was able to handle him and knock him down in the second round, we gave an amazing show.
I like to make my fights exciting and different. Everybody in UFC can fight. We're capable of kickboxing, wrestling, but I like to stand out. That's what I really pride myself on. What can I do to stand out from the other people in my sport.
I like to make my fights exciting and different. Everybody in UFC can fight; we're capable of kickboxing, wrestling, but I like to stand out. That's what I really pride myself on. What can I do to stand out from the other people in my sport.
You can actually find a lot of gyms that do teach mixed martial arts. But it's just like with any martial art - you've got to look at the coaches, go watch some classes, see how people treat each other and how the coaches treat the students.