I wrestled at 165 pounds in college. I would actually cut from 205 pounds down to 165, and it wasn't really a big deal for me. With me wrestling all of the time, my body got used to it.
I've got a wife who keeps me humble.
Pride is an amazing thing.
The hardest thing is that the people who don't know anything about fighting, they label you. Once they get to know me, they're like, 'Ah, you're not anything like I thought.' That's probably the hardest thing about being a fighter - everything else is easy.
For some reason, I have a thick skull.
Pressure lets you know what kind of person you are.
But after defeating Carlos Condit, I've shown I deserve to have a title shot.
I'm going to do everything in my power and train as hard as I can to make sure that 12-pound gold buckle that says UFC on it is somewhere at my house.
I think my strength is going to be my greatest attribute and speed.
There's nobody at welterweight I didn't face that I wasn't stronger than. I didn't face anybody that I didn't feel I couldn't outpower.
You see a lot of guys who are told they will be the number one contender if they win the fight in front of them. They have fought a couple of really tough guys to get there, but when the chance is presented to them, something happens in some shape or form, and they aren't able to take it. They end up losing. That was the biggest fear for me.
I didn't enjoy fighting. All I cared about was trying to beat the scale. Once that got to a point where I couldn't compete with the scale anymore, I was like, 'I'm done.'
Check out my pictures. I'm fat. You know what I mean? But I love it. I love it. I'm a fat dude.
Word of mouth is very powerful.
That's my goal for every fight, is to hit them as hard as I can.
My wife and kids mean more than the belt or UFC or anything else to me.
Fans and reporters, they don't get that ever since I was five, all I've done is competed against something. I always had a goal. Then, whenever you hit a point, there's a point in an athlete's life where it's like, 'Is it still worth it?'
I'm done fighting at welterweight. Unless they open up a 175-pound division, I'm moving up to middleweight.
The Lord blessed me with great strength.
I still like fighting, it just got to a point in MMA where it was just another day.
