At the end of the day, it's a business about fighters and a business about people. This is our philosophy.
I think boxing is on the rise because of what Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor did. I think they captured the time and made boxing cool again.
Hugh Hefner represented pop culture in a way that no else could.
You get a world-class athlete like Hershel Walker, who was a Heisman trophy winner and did some amazing things, but he had a martial arts background. He did kickboxing. He had a combat sports background. It was just rekindling that training and that martial arts workout ethic. He got back into it and did quite well.
In Strikeforce, we're committed to putting on the best fights that we can.
I'd like to see Melvin Manhoef fight Robbie Lawler.
If a legend fight comes up, or if a fun fight comes up that makes sense, and the fans want to see it, then we're going to do it. We're not going to be afraid to do those fights.
All my fighters know I'm a fan of theirs. They know I think of them as the stars and that we will facilitate in the building of their stock.
I always love meeting other promoters.
You can't put an age on power.
Strikeforce is here to stay; we are definitely going to do our part to grow the sport and be good ambassadors of the sport.
MMA has evolved. When you look at an MMA fighter's skill set, boxing has to be a big piece of it. All of them have a boxing coach now and strive to have a good stand-up game, knowing that to be a complete fighter, you have to tend to your striking skills.
When I first came to Bellator, I wanted to take it back to what we accomplished at Strikeforce and look at the next generation. So we signed the Aaron Picos of the world and put them in our development programme to nurture them.
My background in promoting martial arts started in 1985 when we were doing PK Karate, which was on ESPN. Fast forward to when mixed martial arts became legal in California. I made the jump to MMA and never looked back.
I'm not a union guy in the sense that I know a lot about how they operate. But I know fighters. They are individual athletes. This is not a team sport. I think it's going to be hard to say, 'Hey, do you mind not fighting on Saturday and walking around the arena with a picket sign instead?' I just don't see it.
We're not going to do monthly pay-per-view just to do pay-per-views. We're going to build up to big fights more like the boxing model, and when the time is right, we'll do the big, big fights.
You can only control your own destiny.
The welterweight division has really emerged as one of our most exciting weight classes.
I've taught martial arts to many children, from 5 years old and up - there's character development, there's respect, discipline, perseverance.
I'm excited to see Jake Hager debut for Bellator in 2018. When I heard he was seriously interested in competing in MMA, and when you look at what he did at the collegiate level, I was very interested in having him on our roster.
