I'm in a sport where, on their day, anyone can beat anyone else if they are at the top of their own game.
The underdog status suits me just fine.
I worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer. I did demolition work, was a postman, was a tiler, a plasterer. I even sold double-glazing door-to-door. But I always dreamed of being a world champion, first of all as a boxer.
If a football player has a bad game, he's allowed to do that because he plays once or twice a week. With fighting, it's once every few months.
Once I started fighting in UFC, things took a big U-turn. After my second fight, I came home and paid my mortgage off.
You can push my buttons all you want and say whatever you want about me, and that's fine... fighters do that.
Big respect to Dan Henderson.
I'm very happy with my wrestling.
If you want to boo, that's your right. Boo. Go ahead. Boo me all day long.
I was a big fan of martial arts movies - Bruce Lee in particular, as cringeworthy as it is. Jean-Claude van Damme was a big inspiration as well - it's a little embarrassing.
It's going to take more than one loss for me to hang up my gloves; that's for sure.
People give me advice all the time, and I don't take a blind bit of notice.
I went to college and did advanced electronical engineering, not really knowing what I wanted to do. It bored me to death, so I dropped out.
I hate it when people call me a cage fighter. I'm a mixed martial artist. But people take one look at what we do, and they just start making assumptions.
A lot of people get up to the top of the pile, maybe get one No. 1 contender match-up, and if they lose, they drift into obscurity. I lost, and I went back a bit. But I built myself back up. Three times.
Without wishing to sound arrogant, when I was younger, I used to win every single martial arts tournament I ever entered. I used to enter the under 14s and under 16s, win both gold medals in those, and then go in the men's tournament just for experience, and end up getting a silver medal.
Fighting is different than other sports because you're not competing as regularly.
I'm a proud Brit and a proud Englishman.
I just like doing normal things, going to the shops in Manchester, getting a meal with my girlfriend and kids, going to the cinema. I love Las Vegas and there places, but I couldn't live there.
People write me off, and yet then, when I fight people, my opponents have a completely different opinion of me afterwards.
