To call myself a fighter is to be selfish at times. It makes me resent my opponent. That's motivation I can tap into.
I have a lot of plaques; I have a lot of accolades - things that I'm proud of - but I don't think I ever reached my full potential as a wrestler.
I just put all my energy into me and focusing on what I'm going to do, and I'll go in there and do that right through the end of the fight until I get the job done.
When I think about protecting my son and fighting for him, that's a big threat in a fight. If I can go there, it makes me unstoppable.
I love fighting... It's something I think I was born to do.
Women's MMA has come a really long way. People look forward to us fighting, and they get excited.
You can have a fight card full of male fights, but yet when that women's fight comes on, that's what people watch. They're super excited by it.
How I hurt my knee was doing something so minimal that it was a little worrisome. To try that motion and others again, after the injury and after surgery, made you worry a bit.
With a lot of things in life, it's hard to do the right thing.
There's moments where things are harder than others, and there are obviously questions, but when it comes down to it, there is no quit in me.
I'm training at Alliance because they encourage me, and they motivate me, and they try to build on my uniqueness as a fighter, as an athlete.
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.
I was very much a student of the sport. I wanted to know everything, all the moves. It was the coolest thing I had seen. I started winning matches. Dads didn't want their sons to face a girl. Coaches didn't want to put any of their wrestlers up against me to be beaten by a girl.
I don't care who I'm fighting if I'm not fighting for the title.
You can sit there and punch me in the head for three minutes straight, but I'm gonna figure it out. I always do. I just know that about myself.
The first thing I usually do after a fight is apologize to my coaches because I didn't do one damn thing they told me to do.
I would love to fight Ronda for the belt. I would love to avenge my loss and fight her again for what that means to me. I don't know what it means to her, but to me, that's what it would look like for me in perfect world.
Half the reason I fight the way I fight is because of where I get my mind, and I'm very protective of the things that matter to me.
I need to show my son that when things get hard and rough - not if, when - you have to keep going; you have to move forward.
Nothing in my life has ever come easy.
