It was really difficult being away from MMA because it's been a way of life for me for 13 years. But being on the outside and coaching helps you sharpen your skills because you have to explain what you do, why things work and why other things don't.
Rashad Evans
I pretty much focus on all the main styles out there, karate, wrestling, boxing, jiujitsu, just pretty much anything within MMA.
I was just so rambunctious as a little kid. It started because I hung out with my older brothers and their friends. I always had to fight to prove I was tough.
It's good to be able to feel appreciated and to be able to know that your efforts and the impact in the sport meant something.
Jon has always been able to start off at a certain pace but then pick it up throughout the fight and then, at the end of the fight, his opponents are like, 'Damn, this guy is at another level.' I think that's what makes Jon Jones, Jon Jones.
I had just graduated from Michigan State and I was working at a hospital. I was a security guard, I worked at night. Part of my job was putting bodies in the morgue and doing that kind of thing. I used to put bodies in the morgue and take them out. When I got done doing that at the hospital, in the morning I would work out before I went to sleep.
And at the end of the day as an athlete you have to be coachable. And being coachable is a humbling thing.
Sometimes it doesn't always say Niagara Falls there, but you better believe, I represent Niagara Falls every time I step in the octagon.
I went to Michigan State because a coach I was being recruited by told me if I go to Michigan State, I wouldn't start. I didn't like the boundaries he put on me. He was probably trying to look out for my best interests, but at the time I took it kind of personal. Not only did I start, but I made captain.
I've always felt that I had to go out and prove myself in every fight.
I like to have a lot of time to be able to format what I want to do, and how I'm going to do my training camp. When you're doing a camp on short notice, it makes everything else suffer.
True wealth is not measured by how much money you've got in the bank or how many toys you've got. Some of the happiest people in the world don't have a crying quarter, but they've got all the things that mean a lot to them.
When people are overlooking somebody like Phil Davis, it's a dangerous thing.
I remember the first time I fought somebody with a name and that was Tito Ortiz. I didn't start fighting until like the second round because I was like, 'Oh my God, that's Tito Ortiz. That's Tito Ortiz from TV. Look how big his head is, damn.'
I was a rowdy boy growing up.
I wanted to play football, and my football coach told me if I wanted to be a football player, I should wrestle. That's why I started to wrestle.
MMA was love at fight sight. I felt like I was born to do it.
You can have the best college wrestling in the world, but you can have terrible MMA wrestling.
Of course I expect to be booed. People always have to find the bad guy, and for some reason, the look on my face or something, people just want to boo me. That's fine.
The same people that boo you are the same people who will ask you for a picture an an autograph.
Only thing I care about, the only thing I think about is the fight in front of me.
Being tough is probably the biggest thing that NFL players are known for, having that kind of toughness.
Sometimes when you open your mouth you show what you're afraid of more than anything.
I will always find something to challenge myself. I will go up to heavyweight or down to middleweight.
Yeah, I miss that feeling of knocking somebody clean out. There's nothing like it when you go into a fight and you just take 'em up out of there with just one punch. It's just the best feeling in the world.
Keith Jardine pushes me the hardest because we're in the same weight class and we get competitive with each other, we make sure we're in shape and ready to compete.
I don't really think about the title, to be honest with you. I'm just going to go in there and fight. I'm a proud champion, but at the same time I'm not really fighting for the belt. I'm fighting because I love to fight and don't wanna lose and I don't like to lose.
I try to stay away from high sodium and high sugar.
I've trained with real, world-class wrestlers.
Everyone's talking about Phil Davis and what he did in college. It's an accomplishment to win an NCAA title. I don't want to discredit that. But I believe if I would have wrestled him in college, I would have beat him.
There's a lot of reasons I didn't perform the way I could have in college. Going to college, I was a new parent, I lived in another state. I just wasn't mentally into it when I was in college.
I won't fight Thiago Silva. I won't fight Cezar 'Mutante' Ferreira. I won't fight anybody who I train with.
It's sad because I worked so hard to be able to provide for my kids and give them a better life than I ever had for myself but I can't give them the one thing which they really need more than anything, and that's me.
I grew up so poor and now I have an opportunity to provide for my family in a way that I never imagined. I take that in consideration and try to exploit every single opportunity because when it's over it's over, there are no redos.
At one point in my life, I felt as if fighting was everything. It was everything. I put life second.
I don't want to go out losing. But at the same time, it's what I need. It's what I need to do because I feel like I have other things in life that are calling me to do, to go to.
I give a lot of credit to my training partners and to my coaches. Both Greg Jackson and Michael Winklejohn are amazing.
Getting the title shot was huge.
I got Rampage's style down so good I am even wearing my dog's chain!
I'm one of those athletes, I compete better for coaches that I have a lot of love and respect for.
I didn't grow up with my father in my life, and that bred a resentment in me, and it bred a mentality in me that made me very angry.
Eric Knuutila was one of those coaches who I could tell who cared, who went the extra mile, who made sure that it wasn't just about getting me on the mat and wrestling.
I wouldn't have won anything without Bill Dixon.
I kind of did mixed martial arts as a hobby. At the time I was actually wanting to become a police officer as I was working in a hospital as a security job in Michigan. It was something I did in my off time.
I didn't really realize that I could make it into a career until midway through the 'Ultimate Fighter' show when I started beating guys who had been training in the sport for a really long time.
Chicago is like a New York City. It's one of the those older cities. It really means something to fight there.
For me I think the pressure Chael Sonnen brings is hard to match with his offense, takedowns, ground and pound, hand in the face and dropping elbows and shots. It kind of wears down a fighter.
You know, MMA doesn't need New York, New York needs MMA. And I say that with all due respect to New York.
Eric Knuutila had a big impact on my wrestling career.
Coming into community college, I wasn't sure of where I wanted to go in my future.
