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Everyone thinks Australia and New Zealand MMA fighters don't have that wrestling base, whereas a lot of Americans and other countries have, with them being able to do wrestling at high-school levels.
I want people to talk about me in five, 10 years, 20 years, that I was one of the best female MMA fighters, that I was one of the best UFC champions in the world back in the day. This is what I want.
As a rugby player I got into the habit of tackling without thinking. But in MMA you've got to land the right way. You can't flop. You've got to bounce back to your feet. You've got to use your sprawl.
My idea is to have two bases. I keep my family in Rio, and when I have a fight scheduled, I will come to Vegas to train here at Xtreme Couture, which I consider the best place for a MMA fighter to be.
There is always pressure in this game and outside of it but as long as you control what you can control the pressure will be used to my advantage, like what the saying goes 'no pressure, no diamonds'.
With boxing, sometimes you'll watch the first three rounds, then you'll change the channel and turn it back in the 10th round. With MMA, you have to watch all 15 minutes. You'll want to watch every second.
I love training - I train a lot - but for 140, it's worse. You have to run every day. I ran six miles in the morning, six miles at night and train MMA and other arts, too. It's a lot of work, a lot of work.
I had some very fit people. I worked with a lot of athletes helping them, especially combat athletes, MMA fighters,[Dennis] Bermudez, [Chris] Weidman, and guys on the lower levels - boxers and MMA fighters.
The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.
Have fun, that's what it's all about. People get stressed over it... Let competition eat them up. That's not me, I just get in and have fun. That's what I'm here to do: Have fun and make some money doing it.
I remember watching Anderson Silva fight Dan Henderson at UFC 82. I had never really watched MMA, but I looked up to Dan Henderson. He was a wrestler, like me, but also a tough, powerful mixed martial artist.
We're all going to have tests in our life... We never know when that test comes, but we know we have to be prepared for it. We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors.
There are two kinds of people who do martial arts: those who practice a thousand different kicks one time each, and those who practice one kick a thousand times minimum. You can guess which group I belong to.
Due to the UFC educating people on MMA as a sport, people give us the respect as athletes, opening doors to opportunities which wasn't available in the past. It has been amazing to be part of the UFC journey.
In terms of career options, I didn't think about MMA at all. I don't know if I really thought it was a career path for many women. For someone like me, even in my prime, it wasn't something I really considered.
The people who critique me are the people who don't know about the sport. They don't really know about the rules of MMA. They aren't a real fan or follower of the sport, or they're just people who like to talk.
Anybody can be happy when things are going well, and I've learned that. But when things aren't going well it draws out the inner warrior in us to radiate that and bring whatever happiness we can to the situation.
A man doesn't require the approval of others. He's willing to follow his heart wherever it leads him. When a man is following his heart-centered path, it's of little consequence if the entire world is against him.
They should bring up my record, and call it the fighter bible. The warrior bible. All those guys with padded records should read it everyday, and they should put my picture on their wall as the Jesus Christ of MMA.
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 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.
At the beginning, my dream was to become a world-class boxer, but then I stepped into MMA. And when I stepped into MMA, it was to have fun. I reminded myself of what was the purpose, of what was the goal: to have fun.
My background in promoting martial arts started in 1985 when we were doing PK Karate, which was on ESPN. Fast forward to when mixed martial arts became legal in California. I made the jump to MMA and never looked back.
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.
I had 33 kickboxing fights, 37 MMA fights, plus 44 amateur boxing fights, which most of them were international. I will keep fighting as long as I feel good, but I will repeat once more, any fight could be the last one.
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.
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.
To a lot of MMA fighters, pro wrestling is a very popular thing and I'm very thankful for them to try and make the transition into professional wrestling. But then they figure out its not as easy as a lot of people think.
I never hated Ronda. She's always talked about me; she did that to promote herself because when she started, nobody knew her, and she talked about me for people to know who she is. And she opened the doors for women's MMA.
I'm just tired of the unethical people, the scumbags, all that. Maybe that's how all businesses are run, but in MMA, I've been in the UFC, Legacy, and Bellator. The UFC was the best, and even they didn't treat you that well.
The uncomfort zone is very important for us... To feel uncomfortable is important to strengthen your spirit. Like the samurai says, if you feel comfortable you must search for the discomfort, don't look only for the easy way.
It's not like I'm going to go out and change the world and convert everyone into MMA fans. There's going to be fans out there who are fans of combat sports and fans of contact sports but not everybody's going to be converted.
I'm a fan first and foremost. I get caught up in the drama, the emotion of what is happening, whether it's a boxing match, an MMA fight, a kickboxing contest, or a WWE matchup. I want to tell the story and paint more pictures.
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.
Ronda Rousey changing the game for MMA, you know? Dana White said he'd never have a girl in the Octagon. Ronda Rousey comes along, and she's the main event any time she's on. The women, I feel, in the UFC are stealing the show.
I'm excited to see Jake Hager debut for Bellator in 2018. When I heard he was seriously interested in competing in MMA, and when you look at what he did at the collegiate level, I was very interested in having him on our roster.
No one has ever done the Echo Arena, and I'm a Scouser. The momentum I've got and the way MMA is growing in the city and the way MMA fans are - Scousers, as individual fans, are just amazing - it doesn't matter who it's against.
I can choose whoever I want, in MMA things change very rapidly, sometimes you don't know what'll happen and there's a guy that upsets everybody. I could fight who the fans would like me to fight the most. For me that's important.
My first MMA fight was July 2006 here in Brazil. I won a few fights here in Brazil, and then I got a chance to fight in the UFC, but they put me against the number one contender for the title at that time. It was Fabricio Werdum.
In college, I tried to start wrestling as soon as I could and when it was available to me, as I loved competing, and then got into MMA under Pat Miletich, where I was able to sharpen all my skills and develop into a true fighter.
I think that Ronda and I had similar paths in MMA; she became a bigger star than I ever was, but a similar thing happened, where the backlash from the fans happened after you slip up once kind of makes you fall out of love with it.
One element of wrestling that I know what I grew up with we put a lot of emphasis towards was the takedown. But, you could win an Olympic championship and never score a takedown, and I don't know if MMA fans are even aware of that.
Each increment of knowledge imparted in this way is so satisfying-and one's ignorance at every stage so consequential-that the process of learning BJJ can become remarkably addictive. I have never experienced anything quite like it.
If you go to any fight, whether MMA or boxing, there's a whole musical soundscape to these events. There's pre-event pump up/psych-up music, there's fighter introductions, there's between rounds, so my musical needs are really diverse.
The experience I've had with Strikeforce kickboxing, K1, Strikeforce MMA, working with ESPN, working with Showtime, working with Japanese television, working with fighter camps from all over the world has given me a unique perspective.
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 junior and senior year in college is when I first realized what MMA is and really started liking it. I went the other route - I went into the entertainment field and started wrestling professionally, and I did that for about 11 years.
The NFL has gone a long way to Disney-fy its image, but it's not Disney. It's the MMA. It's a violent, brutal human war, with rules. The same guy who says, 'I'm going to rob everybody,' is the same guy who would be successful in the NFL.
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.
There's a lot of guys in pro wrestling that just kind of have this MMA fantasy, and they never act on it. I'm acting on it. I don't want to be one of those guys who sits there and goes, 'I could have done that or I should have done that.'