The journey has moulded me into the person I am today. The journey of my mixed martial arts experience has been filled with ups and downs, but through that, I have come out a much better man.
Robert Whittaker
I started training with Fabricio Itte with my wrestling and high performance; I started spending a lot more time with my head coach Henry Perez and also my grappling coach Alex Prates. Those three are my core team, and they've made hugely important changes and skill enhancements with my game.
I'm very proud of my heritage and the blood that runs through my veins. I take a lot of strength from that.
My mother's Maori, and my father's Australian. I take my strength from both my ancestors, and I'm really privileged.
I've got to give props to my dad. He got me into the UFC and the MMA scene to begin with.
It's an absolute honour and privilege to get out there and be an Australian headlining an Australian card. That's unreal; it really is.
Every time I step out there in the Octagon, I aim to do Australia proud. And this isn't for popularity or a fan base; it has never been for that. It's just because I love my country, and I want to show the world what we're doing down here.
When I made the UFC, everyone said, 'You need to go overseas.' I thought I had to go as well, and I went to Tristar Gym, and I was there for one or two years. But changes were needed. I'd come off back-to-back losses - Court McGee and Stephen Thompson - and I needed to look at my roots and go back to the drawing board.
I'm hugely into video games; I always have been. I started on the Sega with games like Sonic, Battletoads, and Tetris... all those old-school games.
I like to think I learn a lot out of every fight.
Everyone needs an objective, and everyone needs a goal, and it was frustrating just kind of being at a standstill.
No fighter wants to risk getting ring rust.
It's coffee - if I have just the right amount, I come across as charismatic. One too many, and it's like I'm having a seizure.
I just don't want to be a champion; I want to be one of the best fighters there ever was.
I hit hard, and I hit fast - much faster than Bisping, much harder than Bisping, and I have much better defence than Bisping.
It's a very funny topic, missing weight and getting title shots. I think the punishments should be more severe, but I don't know.
I vigorously train in my jui jitsu and my wrestling, but my stand-up game gives me a huge advantage in defending take-downs.
Fighter, father, husband - it's all the same person. I know the UFC stereotype is that we're all thugs. But I'd like people to know that I don't have to switch one off to try to be another. Being a father and a fighter, it's who I am.
I think the mental preparation isn't something that you can work on in one large sum. It has to be a collective collaboration of doing little things for your mental state constantly throughout the prep and managing your life outside the Octagon, managing your life in transit to the Octagon, managing your life once you get to training.
The reason I fight is to provide for my family, and I cannot risk having that taken away.
That's the game plan - I've got it written down on paper: beat everyone. And that's what I'm looking forward to doing.
Every fight, I try to get out there and set an example to show the rest of the world we have fighters from Australia, and we're for real, and we're here to stay.
I train hard; I have the best coaching staff in the world... We always do the right things. I stick to the plan, and we get things done.
Michael Bisping's whole life is a film scene. He's always acting. Confronting me at UFC 213, it makes me laugh. It's a bit clownish.
With a guy like Yoel Romero, if he senses weakness, he will capitalize on it every time he can.
I've never cared who I fight. And that's something I just say - 'I'll fight anyone' - it's something I've lived up to my whole career. And I'm proud of that.
I actually think that wrestling is much harder than MMA, to be honest.
It was an absolute honour to fight in Vegas. Every fighter dreams of fighting at the MGM Grand. That's where so many legends have fought before and so many legends will continue to fight.
When you get chickenpox as an adult, it's not a laughing matter.
The UFC does what it wants. That's just how it is.
It is amazing to have the UFC to come here to Perth... it is great for Australian Mixed Martial Arts and great for the sport, and it is going to be great for Perth to have such a world-wide event, through pay-per-view, hosted here.
Take a martial art that you enjoy. Don't worry about the end result; just enjoy getting up and going to training. And there is no right martial art to do. They are all good.
Family are my greatest source of strength. Emotion - they help me deal with that. One look at them, and I know everything is OK.
I think it's highly unprofessional to not make weight.
When you ask a guy, 'Are you gonna take a fight if your opponent doesn't make weight?' Is it really asking? Does he really have a choice? When you back them into a corner like that, is there really a choice to be made?
As a fan of this sport, I am gutted to see 'Jacare' lose. To be matched up against him and to have the honor of fighting him, it blew my mind.
I think everyone has to have their mettle tested in a tough fight.
I don't think of myself as the champion too often, honestly.
If you don't make weight, you're breaching a contract, straight up.
Obviously, that's the thing any athlete wants to be able to do, to take weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
You know those hard days you go home where you've been worked to the bone and you just want to do nothing? In fight prep, every day is that day.
It's definitely a reason I game so much: to forget about the pressures of fighting and the hardships of training and everything.
I like eating. I like food.
Who am I to tell people what to do with their own careers and how they're doing?
I used to get so stressed out before the fight, weeks out, because of how much weight I had to cut to get there.
It's definitely been a progression, but I always knew I could be a great fighter. I could feel it inside of myself.
I have great striking, really great striking, and I hit very hard.
I have faith in my wrestling, faith in my grappling, and faith in my striking.
With the UFC, anything can happen, really.
I'm a very objective-driven bloke, so to have a goal in mind and to have something to do is very important to me.
