Chris Weidman
We bought a dog, and we financed it - a $1,400 dog. We had no money, so me and my wife had to put our names together with our credit just to finance a dog.Collection: Finance
A lot of my career I'm out of the gym, I'm injured and I'm blown up.
I feel like smaller countries, other countries, they cheer, they support their people no matter what. We need to get a little bit more supportive of our people.
We have a lot of great stars and so many different things, some of the other countries don't have that. So when they get somebody, they support them to the death. America, I kind of think we take it for granted sometimes.
I've fought all these top Brazilians. They're all supporting their people, Anderson Silva, they're supporting him. Lyoto Machida, they're all supporting him. I didn't have the full support of America. Not everyone American was rooting for me because I'm from America. If they were rooting for me, it's because they were a fan of me.
I want to fight the best possible people.
I want to have the biggest challenges in front of me and conquer them. That's why I wanted to fight Anderson Silva when nobody else wanted to fight him.
I want to beat people who people think I can't beat.
I want a rematch with Mousasi more than anything.
I'm going to win the belt at middleweight and I'm going to go up to 205 and win the belt there after I dominate the middleweight division for a little bit - that will happen.
You don't want to fix things that aren't broken, so that kind of stops you from make changes.
I grew up in a decently tough neighborhood.
I grew up getting bullied and fighting a lot.
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.
Coming off all my wins I had a lot of criticism.
My 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' type attitude might have held me back and made me complacent.
When you get hurt it's hard to judge when it's the right time to pull out of a fight.
I put a lot of pressure on myself.
Look at the guys I've fought. Anderson Silva. Lyoto Machida. Vitor Belfort. All those guys are much quicker than Luke Rockhold and I did just fine.
It's just an honor to be part of an apparel brand like Reebok.
I never even imagined having my own shoe.
Wrestling background, you never talk trash.
To become a world champion, to defeat Anderson Silva, to accomplish my goal in one night, it was a super surreal feeling.
Money, autographs, I had no desire to even do that. I fell in love with fighting and those types of things became attached to it.
When I speak and say I am the best in the world and have the capability to dominate everybody in my weight class, I really believe that.
I've kind of grew to enjoy fighting legends that I got into the sport watching and admiring.
I took my first fight in the UFC on short notice. I took my first big fight against a top-five guy on ten days notice.
People gotta realize as a fighter you want to become a champion because you get paid way more money. So the belt is very intriguing for that reason.
To win the belt from Bisping, the hardest problem for me would be to train hard for him because he stinks. I'm just kidding, he's really good... No, I'm lying.
To walk around and people ask me who the champion is in my weight class and I have to say Michael Bisping, it's a little embarrassing, but that's just the way it goes.
It's been a dream of mine to fight at MSG.
That's why everybody loves to tune in and watch these fights, because at any given moment, any given fight, any given fighters, anything can happen. A fighter could win nine out of 10 times, but there's always that one time.
There's bad apples in every type of job, whether it's sports or normal day-to-day jobs.
People forget, I was 9-0, I was fighting Anderson Silva. I was fighting the best guys this sport has ever seen, one after the other, with no experience.
I know I'm the best in the world.
A lot of these players, if you listen to the Islanders or the Rangers, they get interviewed in the locker room right after the game, it's very structured answers. They're very protected.
I love 'Jacare.' I'm a fan of 'Jacare.'
I think the best guys in the world should fight.
Every single time I defended the belt, it was against the best guy in the world.
I've been through so much damn adversity, I've had so much critiqued on me. From being the undefeated world champion to never really getting the love or the respect I feel I deserved when I was on top and then finally getting knocked down and then everybody jumping on top, trying to kick me while I was down.
I think any type of setback you have, any tough time you've got, getting through it is what makes you who you are. It makes you a tougher person. I think whatever you've been through in your life makes you a tougher person. I'm very grateful for the background I have, every tough situation I've been through because it's made me who I am.
I'll never be outworked.
I'll never underestimate 'GSP.'
Getting hit is part of the job. You don't want the first time you're getting punched to be in the fight because there's a lot of shock and awe and you won't react well. I like to get hit in sparring. I don't want to get concussed, or I don't want to be getting knocked out, but I want some shock treatment to prepare me for the fight.
I hit adversity when I was at the top of the world. Most people hit adversity when they're just at the beginning, when they're just getting started. I hit it when everybody was watching, and everybody had comments and everybody was doubting me. It was a tough situation to be in.
For me to be able fight in my home state of New York would be a dream come true.
I grew up taking the Long Island Railroad from Baldwin, New York into Penn Station and walking upstairs to Madison Square Garden. Those are some of my favorite memories.
When you're so physically and emotionally invested in something - like you have to be in MMA - there's nothing like having your friends and family there to support you on fight night.
I've been blessed enough to live some of my dreams.
You don't wanna peak too early in training camp, but you don't wanna be out of shape or not to the point where you're able to peak. It's a science to be able to find the happy medium where your body and mind are at their best.