You might be an elite-level athlete in the room, but if no one gets to see you display your craft it doesn't matter.
You gotta do what you gotta do to win, so I don't really get to play around as much.
I would never want to sell a fight based on stuff about race. That's not the type of person that I am. I would never go that route to push a fight.
If you're a sports fan and you're home and you're washing dishes, usually your TV is on ESPN and you're just getting the highlights and keeping up-to-date with all of the sports going around, all of the news.
It's almost out of sight out of mind because there's so many cards. One great fight could happens one weekend and another great fight happens next weekend, you kind of get swallowed up in that pack. So you have to find a way to separate yourself and what better way to do that than on ESPN?
It's all about brand exposure, building your brand, building your image and just getting to that next level as an athlete.
Petr Yan's a tough dude.
My whole thing is I can't wait to inspire the next young fighters from my hometown.
I've got personality. And I can actually fight. I think that combination alone sells.
A lot of guys man, they are dull and dry.
If I'm only fighting once or twice a year, that's just not going to be enough to make a dent in the sport or enough financially for me to get myself to where I want to be and position myself.
This is the weirdest thing. I've been told one thing, that all these guys turned me down, x,y, z. I take to Twitter and some of these guys are like, 'Yeah, I'll take the fight,' then you don't hear anything of it for the next few weeks.
I'm like, 'Man, if I'm going to have this idle time, I might as well be in school, do something positive where I'm not just wasting my prime years and not getting something else in return.' If I'm in school and training, that's OK. I did that in college. It worked.
People can say the media stuff drains you and everything, but you set everything up accordingly to the schedule.
I lost as amateur, I lost a bunch of times as a wrestler, and you always come back.
You show your teeth more when you show what you're made of and your heart.
About this sport, you gotta kind of stay active. If you're not active, you're easily forgotten. It's like out of sight, out of mind.
I want to have a bank account that represents me being a pro athlete.
Whether it's Bellator, OneFC, World Series, whatever, the door's open for me. Financial stability is the most important thing for me.
To be in the UFC and have the name but not the earnings, good for you, you get a hand clasp and a shake and a don't let the door hit you on the way out sort of thing.
