If you're gonna get punched in the face, elbowed, cut up, busted up, injured, have to cut weight, have to bring yourself to the brink of death to show up the next day and try to put on the performance of your life, you've gotta love it. And if I don't love it, it's just not worth it to me.Collection: Death
Perseverance doesn't always mean winning and losing. Perseverance means showing up and rising to the occasion and performing.
Being mentally tough is having to battle those demons and push yourself out of your comfort zone and force yourself to be the person that your mind is telling you you aren't.
Mario Yamasaki should just crawl in a hole and never step inside of any type of professional mixed martial arts event. He should never officiate, ever again.
I've always just been this hairy, wild man.
I get a pit in my stomach every time I think of that last attempt to make 155 for the Anthony Pettis fight. I just get this nasty feeling in my stomach, because no exaggeration, that was one of the scariest moments of my life. I remember that I couldn't stop my body from shaking.
I don't classify myself as a wrestler, I'm a grappler.
The beard has gotta stay. That's my staple. I can't get rid of it.
I don't take a guy down just to hold him, I look for damage and submissions.
I'd love a training camp. But if they walked in the door right now and said, 'Do you want to fight for the title in the next 10 minutes?' I'm out the door, warming up, ready to go.
I could string together 15 wins in a row and still not get a title shot.
I've always loved the fight with Khabib.
I had my sights set on Tony Ferguson for a long time.
I've won five bonuses in my nine fight UFC career.
I've had a mullet the better half of my whole life.
Like every fight, after you make weight, you want to go crazy and eat after you've gone through a camp where you can't do that. So I'd eat pizza and wings and beers.
Fighting at welterweight, I'm much more active in the gym.
I don't think people realize what those weight cuts were doing to me. It took so much out of me to make 155. I wish I could put into words what it was like, to be able to paint the picture of my weight cuts, but I can't. All I can say is that every fight week was a complete misery.
You're not going to win mental warfare with me. I am one of the mentally toughest guys, if not the mentally toughest guy in the UFC.
I won my fight on 'The Ultimate Fighter,' my dad died the next day and I stayed in the game and won the whole thing.
I show up to win. I don't show up to hurt a guy. I don't show up with emotion.
I will be the UFC lightweight champion. Mark my words.
I've always prided myself on being mentally tough, but just because you're mentally tough doesn't mean that what's going on between your ears is always good things.
I really enjoy the opportunity to face another Ultimate Fighter winner because it doesn't come around that often.
I've got to become 'The ultimate Ultimate Fighter.'
I only want to fight Top 5 guys. I'm here to be a champion.
Colby Covington is a nightmare match-up for me, but I'm ready to walk through the fire.
I had never fought a guy before that I had put on a pedestal the way I did with Carlos Condit. I've got his walkout shirt. He's a former champion. I'm a huge fan. I doubted myself a lot of times.
I know I belong at 170. There is not a shadow of a doubt. This is my division and there's a clearcut path to the title.
Anytime my life has ever thrown me a curveball, I can go back to that and draw a lot of confidence for myself knowing I can persevere.
Usually I'm a very instinctive fighter.
I'm around a world-class staff that is pushing me to the limit while making sure I don't break myself, which is something I've had a problem with.
If you look at my fights, you see I finish a lot. It's just how I like to go and I'm always looking for a way to end it.
I feel I've always been a fan-friendly fighter.
My path leads to a world title.
I haven't fought for a while and didn't want a warm-up fight. I wanted to jump right back in the pit and I got what I asked for. I got Anthony Pettis.
The loss of my dad gave me a lot of inspiration because sometimes I stop and think, 'Would everybody have done the same thing that I did?' It was a very tough thing to cope with. I only went home for less than 24 hours.
I feel blessed that I have a tough opponent in Justin Lawrence.
I'm just looking forward to a great fight and just to keep making my dad proud.
In the past, I've lacked confidence and sometimes that can show physically.
I've always said that as I've gotten older and come into my prime, when I turned 28 would be my best time.
With Masvidal, I dropped him and it's the first time I'd ever dropped anyone in my life. I kind of started to turn the corner after that, and it was just a realization that if my hands were a weakness, it was only because I didn't believe in them. I had the talent to do it.
I believe I'm destined to be a world champion and I'm getting closer to what I want. Part of it is developing a championship mentality and I feel I have that now.
My father worked very hard and he never missed a day of work, no matter how sick he was.
I'm not afraid to grapple with anybody in the lightweight division.
I'm not afraid to stand toe-to-toe and throw punches.
I'm not the prettiest. I'm not the best, but I win and that's all that matters in the UFC.
We're never going to solve weight cutting, we need to just get past that. People are always going to cut weight.
Just do Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz 3 for the 165-pound title. You want to talk about a big fight? That's a big fight. Let's add some weight classes. Let's see more champion versus champion. Let's get some more two division champions.
I've talked to my coaches, and I don't even know if I would go to 165. I might go to 175.