A Quote by Michael Chiesa

I'm not here to be mediocre. I'm not in the UFC just to get a paycheck and make a living. That's really not what I'm here for. If I wanted to make money, I would have gotten out of the sport and done something else. I want to be a world champion.
I can't make it doing anything else, the amount of money. Obviously, anybody can go to work and make money, but the paycheck I make boxing, I'm not going to make anywhere else.
The majority of people in this country, they live paycheck to paycheck. If we can, long-term, change that trend and make it so that investing and saving money, more broadly, is less of a chore and something that people actually want to do, that would be success to me.
When art is really great, it's really powerful, can really do something to you, make you feel more alive and make you feel more connected to something. If you don't feel like that when you do it, and you just make a movie to make money, that would be pretty boring to me. I just wouldn't do it. That would be like sitting in an office, which I don't want to do.
If you want to make it as a sportsperson - Become knowledgeable in the sport you want to participate in. Think about the sport and what it can offer in its entirety. You shouldn't want to become a professional sportsperson because of the money. There's a lot more to gain from being involved in sport. Work hard to get what you want. If it's your ambition, go for it. You don't have to be the best in the world to make it as an elite athlete. You need to be a grafter and be prepared to sacrifice.
With the UFC it's like, you make okay money, and only if you're the champion do you make good money. So they're keeping the fighters deliberately poor so they'll keep fighting.
There is something restless and curious about the Irish. Like everybody else, we want to make money and make our way in the world but it's not the be all and end all. We also want to have fun, we want to make friends, make connections, share stories.
The ultimate goal for me is to be the world champion - it's all I've wanted to do since I was a kid - so when the money that comes with it is life-changing, yes, that's nice, but get The Ring magazine belt, being considered the world champion, is something money can't buy.
It really has been a blessing because you can go and look at our other movies we've done in a studio system. We didn't get to make the movie that we wanted to make. We made the movie that someone else wanted us to make. That can be a little disheartening, a lot disheartening. While there have been struggles, it doesn't matter which table you're at because you're going to have obstacles, but I kind of like being able to make the movie that you want to make.
I'm very comfortable in Bellator. It would be interesting to have superfight between a Bellator champion and an UFC champion. I wouldn't have to necessarily migrate to the UFC. We could just have one duel. When it comes to the best fighters in the UFC, I think I'm better than all of them.
I was in school for jazz voice, which is the dumbest way to spend $35,000 a year. I just felt like a rip-off of good jazz singers. I didn't feel like I was being anything special, and I always wanted to be special. It's like you know you have something inside you that's gonna make you different than everybody else and make you somebody in this life, but you wish you could figure out what it is, because at most things, you're either mediocre or really, really bad.
When I was 15 years old I felt totally confident I would become a world champion and the greatest bodybuilder in the world. The same was true of show business - I knew that one day I would make more money than anyone else in the industry and I did. For that you need the willingness to work and do everything it takes to make the vision turn into reality.
If I wanted to say something, I think the world knows me as being outgoing enough if I really wanted to make a comment, I would just make a comment.
At a young age, I really wanted to make music and make my own sort of thing. I'm sure if it wasn't music, it would have been writing, or it would have been maybe painting. I just always had the drive to try and make something with my hands and to just pull something out of myself and shape it and see it in front of me, if that makes any sense.
Nobody ever starts out to make a mediocre, commercial film. You always think it's going to be something. And then, once you're done with your shooting, you have no control. You're just done, as an actor.
Just being able to make exactly what I want with my brother and a lot of my best friend and to have a place like HBO that not only lets you do that, but supports you and puts up billboards in support of it, and really puts it out there for you. That's not something I get a lot in the independent film world where everybody's pinching pennies and nervous about whether it's going to make money or not.
I want to become undisputed UFC welterweight champion. I've been so close a couple of times, but I don't want to leave the sport always a bridesmaid and never a bride. I want to get that belt around my waist.
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