In the grand scheme of things, fighting people in the cage is not that big of a deal, I know. It's not a hero profession even though its treated as one. It's not being a soldier or police officer or paramedic of firefighter or anything.
Forrest Griffin
I like deer. They're kinda cool.
If you look at UFC champions: BJ Penn - terrifying! GSP - terrifying! Anderson Silva - terrifying! But I'm not terrifying.
Winning the belt is one thing. But you're not really a champion until you defend it.
I've always mid-lined myself where I don't really expect myself to do big things or to win big fights. It's not a lack of confidence, it's just that I think to an extent that you need a bit of an ego if you're going to think that you're going to conquer something.
I always wanted to work in charitable things, community outreach, etc.
I try to break a sweat every day doing something. Try to do hot pilates once a week. I'm not kidding. I actually hurt myself doing hot pilates, so I got that going for me.
I am not the super-submission guy, I am not the one-punch KO guy, so I am not the most feared guy in the world. But I will not quit, I will not break and I will fight you like a dog for every second of every round.
You have the belt, you fight who they tell you to fight.
I do actually enjoy the process of putting my thoughts down on paper and having people actually read them.
Look what happened when I fought Anderson Silva. It can't possibly get worse than that. I've already seen the bottom and it wasn't that bad. I made it through. I survived. It's fighting. It's not the end of the world.
During a fight with Anderson Silva, I slipped on an imaginary banana peel.
I was a police officer in Augusta, Ga.
Every injury is specific to what has happened, but the advice that I will give is that if you have a lower body injury, to work your upper body out. If you have an upper body injury, work your lower body out. Again, move what is not broken and you will definitely feel better.
I live the perfect life.
It's long been a problem. But I'm not just talking about the UFC - I mean homophobia in sports in general and athletes sometimes say really stupid things.
I'm kind of a grinder.
There are two things I want to be able to know when I walk into a fight, or with anything in life. And I'm not Superman, I'm not even that great at fighting. Those two things are: I have done everything in my power to prepare for this and I will not quit, no matter what.
You would have to be born with a gene that doesn't allow you to recognize sarcasm if you take anything I say seriously.
It gets old, all of it. People putting a lot of hopes and dreams on you. Telling you they put money on you, and 'you're my kid's idol.'
I wrote an article for Revolver and it was very offensive.
Taking care of your family is the manliest thing you can do.
It's very unmanly to change yourself for others. Be comfortable with oneself. There have been feminist movements but there's never been a male one.
I can do anything for 25 minutes.
People think TRT is for lazy people. No, it's just you're just trying to improve yourself.
What's wrong with wanting to be better at your job?
I've always kind of been the guy next door who just happens to fight for a living. I tried to figure out what was special and marketable about me early on in my career and I realized that there's absolutely nothing special about me, so I wanted that.
Unfortunately, I found out when I was trying to like square up with people and face off with people and, like, try to intimidate them and I'm pretty non-threatening.
For like a year, even after I retired, my ear would just bleed. There was just some scar tissue on it that tore open so many times that it just started bleeding all the time. It's rough on the wife, she has to keep washing the sheets again and again.
We grew up in an era where there was a lot of fear of HIV. Everybody worried about it and everybody took precautions, and everybody knew that it was a thing that was out there. As it slowed down, it left the spotlight, people forgot.
HIV is not a gay or straight disease. It's a young people's disease, unfortunately.
When I announced my retirement, that was actually when I was trying to come back and I realized, it just wasn't viable. It passed me by. My shoulder is done. I brush my teeth with my left hand now. That's just the way it goes. I can't shoot a basketball, I can't throw any kind of ball. I was right handed.
You have to move on with your life at some point. You don't quit fighting, fighting quits you at some point. It's very unfortunate, but that's the nature of the beast. And that's one of those things, too, that I like to tell young fighters. Have a backup plan.
You can't cuss on TV. It does hurt your brand if you do stuff like that. That's not what blue chip sponsors are looking for.
Thiago Santos is a guy who can take your belt from you with one punch.
It was weird, I saw the Brian Stann vs. Wanderlei fight, I thought, if I don't have another of those in me, there's no point in continuing. I never really cared about winning or losing, then don't put the product out there at all if it's going to be subpar.
The biggest thing I learned is that when Dana says retire, you should retire. Otherwise, you will blow your knee out before your next fight.
Nobody goes, 'I'm a top 10 fighter. Well, maybe Top 15. I can beat a lot of guys'... Nobody ever says that. That's the thing with having a grasp on reality. I know I'm not the best.
I thought wrestling was the stuff where people jumped off ropes. So that was my experience with wrestling.
I just love fighting. I know I'm not the best, but I'm still pretty good, there's a lot of people I can still beat. What do you do. What else am I supposed to do? I have no other skills. I enjoy doing this. There's nothing I'd really rather do, you know?
My fitness philosophy is very different from the UFC fighter fitness philosophy. Mine is to work out in a way that you will be able to sustain for the next 20 years.
My philosophy when I trained was to be 1% better every day.
I will give one piece of advice that always keeps me going; get your body moving every day, no matter what. Don't truly have an off day, just move. Move light and try to get your body moving to break a light sweat.
I hate flying so I always drive.
I like listening to Method Man before fighting.
The best car I ever had was a Mazda 626. I paid $72 for it. The guy told me if I towed it off his property I could do whatever I wanted to it. So I paid to have it towed to my house and me and my step-dad fixed it up and drove it until I totalled it.
Me and my step-dad shared a $500 Chevy Celebrity, a 1983 Dodge Ram truck, and an old Ford Ranger truck - it was a piece of junk. I hated that thing. It fell apart. It didn't always go in reverse. So I drove in a circle or I would just get somebody to sit in the thing and I would push it backward.
I feel bad for guys in other sports that never work a job. Think about it, most MMA fighters have had to do something for money whereas a guy who was an athlete in college sport then went straight to the pros, he's never had a skill outside of sport.
I'm never going to struggle but I definitely want to make more money, we all do.
I've made a ton of money but I don't have as much as I'd like.
