I'm better than Jon Jones. I'm better than Sean Combs. I am even better than John Holmes.
Chael Sonnen
I was in Las Vegas when the Nogueira brothers first touched down in America. There was a bus - this is a true story. There was a bus that pulled up to a red light, and Little Nog tried to feed it a carrot while Big Nog was petting it. He thought it was a horse. This really happened.
I don't really know what 'respect' means. That sounds like something a kid in the street says after he's getting ready to take your coat and your shoes.
When I was young, they used to call me 'foreman,' not because I was in charge, but because I did the work of four men.
Brian Stann is a great guy. I voted him in for the President of the United States in 2008, and I will write him in again in 2012.
I'm candy-coated poison, and you should not believe anything else.
I thought if you tapped out, you lost the round. Come to find out, you actually lose the fight.
Accosting somebody in public can be regrettable. Accosting a gangster can be hazardous.
Triangle chokes are the refuge for cowards. I would never stoop to that level of locking my legs around a man and squeezing.
I don't walk around looking into cameras and telling people I'm the best fighter in the world just to hear myself talk. I say it for the same reason they put warnings on packages of cigarettes, and fighting Chael Sonnen may be hazardous to one's health.
I'm a God-fearing man, go to church every Sunday, and have since I was a boy. But if I ever found out that God cared one way or another about a borderline illegal fist-fight on Saturday night, I would be so greatly disappointed that it would make rethink my entire belief system.
You can never have the comeback if you don't have the retirement.
I'm a Catholic, and not because I just happened to wake up as a Catholic. I'm not going to be persuaded on any topic, especially not that.
My ideal fight would be against the smallest guy with the most atrocious record in the largest venue for the most insane paycheck. I love easy fights.
Every fight day, I just stay in my room the entire day, and I just stay in bed. I sleep as late as I can, which usually isn't very late; I'm kind of an early riser. But I try to just stay there in bed. I don't usually eat the day of the fight. I don't eat until after the fight.
If your body produces testosterone naturally, fine. Mine doesn't.
I've suffered rib injuries, but I've never had a broken one. I've dislocated it and popped it, and even that, a big step down from broken, it hurts so bad. But you can't really move. You can't even fully breathe and take a deep breath of air.
The fight takes 15 minutes. The build-up takes 90 days. It takes that for a reason.
A double leg in MMA is completely different than what you would do in wrestling because the posture's different. You're standing upright as opposed to bent over; you're slipping a punch as a opposed to grabbing a guy's elbow and doing a traditional elbow pull or slide-by in wrestling.
I don't want to be an also-ran.
Jose Aldo, this guy's a chicken. I can't even tell you how good Jose Aldo is, but he doesn't think it.
As a fighter, that's not something that ever factors in, whether you go first or last or you walk out first or you walk out second. It's not something that ever factors in or you feel slighted about. I don't think that anybody would care. The job is the same.
There was years when my father didn't even make a hundred grand - or barely made a hundred grand - and sure, we had a maid, but she only came twice a week. What do you think happened the other five days? You think those dishes washed themselves? You think those clothes got themselves in the hamper?
I like Bryan Caraway a lot; I used to train with him. I consider him a friend.
Nobody wants to fight Brian Stann. I'm not the only guy, and that's not a big secret.
The only thing more embellished than Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view buys is Floyd Mayweather's net worth. But his spending habits are real.
Jealousy is a hell of a thing. There's a reason it's one of the deadly sins.
I had dreams in 2000 of being an Olympian for boxing. I never talk about it.
I'm a tournament guy; that's what I grew up doing.
All sin and all crime comes from the same thing: 'I decided. I decided this was okay.'
I go to a wrestling match, and I love it. But at a wrestling match, on every level - that includes Division I - you go into an empty and cold gym, you roll out a mat, and you set 10 chairs up on each side. That's a dual meet, and it's very hard to act like it's a big event.
I listen to these pundits all the time breaking down Trump - 'He's brash, and he's bold, and he's successful' - and none of those are what it is. There's one word to sum it up, and it's courage. He has courage.
There's a camaraderie that comes with this sport, but fighting Anderson Silva is a lot like eating Chinese food: twenty minutes after I do it, I'm going to want to do it again.
One element of wrestling that I know what I grew up with we put a lot of emphasis towards was the takedown. But, you could win an Olympic championship and never score a takedown, and I don't know if MMA fans are even aware of that.
I wouldn't poke fun at someone if they were weak. I wouldn't bully somebody.
People bring it up to me: 'Well, you're only in your spot because you can talk well.' Okay, first off, you could be right. But second, what - am I supposed to apologize for this? No.
Brock Lesnar made a career out of refusing to do media and not being accessible.
When Georges St-Pierre retired and Jon Jones was absent, I had Jose Aldo, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. That's how highly I think of him.
There are rules that say 'If a fighter gets old, when a fighter slows down, when a fighter stops looking the same, then he can never come back.' I don't like that.
Because of both hipster culture and Facebook culture, the human race is starting to resemble a school of hairy piranhas.
I see a lot of people try to come out and copy me, duplicate me, and give it the old college try, but at the end of the day, there's only one Chael Sonnen.
When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the regional scene. I read 'Pro Wrestling Illustrated,' and I watched Portland Wrestling and everything I could.
My dad was a plumber. That's hard work. He never missed a day of work. I will never disrespect him by not showing up for an athletic competition that has a maximum duration of 25 minutes. There should be forfeiture if you have to pull out of a fight. If you don't show up, it should be a loss on your record.
Werdum's open to being knocked out in any fight because he's so reckless, but that's also what makes him so damn dynamic.
I've competitively boxed. It's definitely Plan B for me, but I know how to box.
Lance Armstrong did a number of things, and he gave himself cancer.
It doesn't matter if I'm a rival of Anderson Silva's or not; I'm also very objective. And I'm not going to take something from a guy that he earned. Anderson Silva earned the right to be called the greatest of all time. And those are just the facts.
The soreness you feel after a fight or after a good battle, it's the best feeling in the world. You might sit and complain about it, but you feel so accomplished.
Nobody breaks in a fight and comes back in the same fight. Once you break, you're done for the night. You've gotta go back. You've gotta shower up. You've gotta fly home. You've got to reassess, take three or four months, and try it again. But that Anderson Silva breaks in that fight, and still finds a way to win, is remarkable.
The UFC does not owe me a thing. Nothing. I am in debt to them.
