Top 109 Quotes & Sayings by Benson Henderson

Anytime you have anybody that's physically a great athlete and a great specimen, they have the work ethic. They know how to work, know how to improve, know how to get better. They are special athletes.

A lot worse things can happen than losing your world title. But I was able to come to terms with it, accept it, be mature about it.

Just as fighters you have to be smart, you have to read the fine print in your contract and you have to do what's best for your family.

I like to have performances where I don't get too beat up and don't take too much punishment. I'm OK doing three or four times a year. That's fine by me.

I don't want to be one of those guys who says, 'No, I won't fight that guy' or 'I won't fight the guy there; I need to fight him here,' or that sort of stuff. The UFC says, 'This is who you're fighting next,' and I say, 'Cool. Let's do it.'

There's a reason that football players, that still choose to come over to train MMA. They're professional and phenomenal freak athletes and they know how to work as professional athletes. They know how to get better and know how to improve.

I don't always do a whole lot.

I'd say for sure though, read the fine print in the contract. Make sure after you defend your belt for however many times and then you lose, you're not making less money than a kid who had three fights in the UFC. That's a shame. That's laughable. That is a shame.

As I get older, I eat healthier, try to eat the right things, make all these little sacrifices that it takes to be a champion.

You've got to earn way to a title shot.

You try to make your sparring sessions as realistic as possible.

Maybe Bellator would not be a great fit for this guy but would be for this guy. Maybe the UFC is a better call for this guy, but then Bellator is better for that guy. I don't think you can make a blanket statement and say that this organization is great for everybody compared to this organization. Take it case by case.

We're fighters. Stop worrying about showing up in a fur coat. Get out of here with that.

Nick and Nate Diaz. We're different people, we have different personalities. But I have mad respect for them because that is them. That is Nick and Nate being themselves and not putting on a front. Not acting differently when the cameras on than when the cameras off. I got a lot of respect for Nick and Nate for that reason.

You want to be on TV, I want to be on TV, I want to be a part of 20 million viewers, new fans. I'd love to have that opportunity, that chance.

I would like to fight for the Brazilian fans. I would like to fight Aldo in Brazil.

I'd end up being late no matter what before I had kids. Now, with kids, I'm super late everywhere I go.

You can pick and choose how to portray yourself.

You don't have to be 6-foot-7, you don't have to be 300 pounds. You can be 5-foot-2 and 135 pounds and still be one of the baddest dudes on the planet.

A lot of guys need to get back in shape, I'm in the gym all the time so I don't really lose my conditioning as much as other people.

Brock Lesnar, he did a pretty darn good job. He was a WWE star. He came to the UFC and won the UFC belt.

If I keep on winning and keep putting the work in, then everything else falls into place.

Do you want to be famous, or do you want to have actual money to take care of your family down the line? I'd say it's a case by case call there. Some guys fight for different reasons. What do you fight for? Do you fight for this reason or for that reason.

I was born in Colorado Springs and I spent a lot of time there. I moved to Denver when I first started training in MMA full time.

I didn't know that I would be the UFC champion. Did I intend on being the UFC champ? Yeah, absolutely. I didn't exactly see myself doing this as a full time job or career but I certainly intended for it when I started down this path.

I'm pretty low-key. I'm pretty boring, to be honest.

Of course to be a legend of the sport you have to truly have to have a love for MMA. You can be successful in MMA without having that love.

I'd be okay with that - staying at 155, making weight at 155 for the rest of my career. But every once in a while, having a super fight at 170 - St-Pierre and I squaring off. I'd be cool with that.

Like the way Anderson Silva does it - have a fight at 205 every once in a while and always make 185, his weight class.

I don't really fight for money. I don't really care about the pay-per-view. The reason why I love fighting on free TV on FOX as opposed to pay-per-view is because the demographic is a lot broader.

I will fight Chandler again and I will make him quit.

Before, early in my career, it was always just go out there and beat the next guy up. Whoever they put in front of me,just go beat him up. Everything else would take care of itself. You want more money? Go beat the next guy up, it will take care of itself. You want better sponsors? Go beat the next guy, it will take care of itself.

You're never going to release the next album and have it be different from your other two, three, four, five albums. People give them a hard time, but it's like, 'I'm an artist, I'm trying to grow. I don't want to have the same album for 10 albums in a row!' Same thing for a martial artist.

I like getting my hand raised and I'll take it any way I can get it. Slipping on a banana peel, by the skin of my teeth. By any means, you know?

I fight quite a bit.

I just love pure, uncompromised competition. No ball, no net, no goalie, just one person versus one person, and you can do whatever you have to do to get your hand raised.

If a guy's a very good wrestler or a really good boxer or has a really good high kick, you prepare for that. It's the same when you're going to fight someone who talks a lot of crap.

You work on you doing your thing, sticking to your game plan, not letting stuff distract you and get you into a danger zone.

You just can't say 'I'll fight anybody.' Some guys do that early in their career, and their careers never have a chance to develop, because they have had five fights at 170 pounds, when they're walking around at 147 pounds. It's not smart.

I'm always trying to add new tricks, work on my fundamentals, and get better and improve.

As long as you're you, be you, do you. But be real.

You want to raise good kids, but it doesn't happen in one day. You want to be a great fighter, but it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time.

Wrestling was you wrestle in college and you become a high school coach. That was it for wrestlers. We just started to realize there is a legitimate career choice we can choose to use all our wrestling skills we spent our entire lives learning. There is something we can do it now, it's MMA.

It's definitely a motivational factor, becoming a three-organization world champion.

We live in a capitalistic society, don't we? Our country is based on the idea of the free market. Why not incorporate that free-market ideal into your career as a mixed martial artist?

Our older cousins would help us out. We'd get babysat a lot by some of mum's sisters. They took care of us. But my success in martial arts, getting to be a champion, is down to my mum.

I had a very big chip on my shoulder - I won't even lie to you. I had a very large chip on my shoulder.

Seeing the fight game and seeing the way things have worked out, a guy could be on a seven-fight, monstrous win streak and not get a title shot. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

The ability to get sponsors on your own and not have to rely on the amount that Reebok dictates to you was a huge factor. I'd be straight up lying if I said it wasn't a very big part of my decision to go to Bellator.

I've always held a pretty strong civic duty.

Bellator is open to a fighters union - fighters binding together to see what's in our best interest. That's something you can't even breathe about elsewhere. I think it's a good thing for myself and other fighters to have that.

It's a very slippery slope when you have a world champion boxer fighting an MMA guy for the sake of money, and he can't knock him out in the first round. He has to make sure he carries him a little bit.

Every fight, I always try to get better and improve.

There's whole lot of things you can get better at, improve on, day to day.

I'm not as big of a fan of being loud, brash and boisterous just for the sake of selling a fight.

It's a long journey to become successful, and you learn to grow with it. You grow with the small steps you take.

I'm always in the gym, six hours a day. I'm in the gym all the time, six days a week. It's one of the reason why my training camps are a little bit shorter. My training camp is five weeks long because I only need four weeks to get into fighting shape.

I don't like the people, the guys who feel the need to be Donald Trump and say outlandish things just for the sake of being in the headline, just for the sake of creating a stir and getting their name out there.

A lot of times, people take other people's confidence for cockiness, airheadedness, rashness or brashness, and that's the light in which they see you when you say you always knew you'd be a champion, blah blah blah. Well, you have to be confident in the sport we do. As an athlete, in general, you have to be confident.

When you actually have a little bit of food and some calories behind you, it just feels better.