I made promises to myself and my family that I'd be in the UFC before my first daughter was born, that didn't happen. I was almost at breaking point a week before I got that contract, I was going to go back to concreting - that weekend I get my major sponsor, which was huge, and I end up getting my UFC contract the weekend after that.
Maternity leave is over for Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live. She'll be back behind the Weekend Update anchor desk for this week's episode, her first show since giving birth to daughter Alice on Sept. 10. I had to get back to work, .. NBC has me under contract; the baby and I have only a verbal agreement.
Do not go out first thing after signing a contract and buy assets that are huge compared to the contract signed. Just because you have money for the first time doesn't mean you have to spend it before you know all the ramifications of buying the assets.
Every company that wants to sponsor a fighter in the UFC has to pay a sponsor tax to get inside the Octagon, and that's why many fighters in the UFC struggle to get sponsors. In Bellator, we don't have that.
I had a great contract coming out of the UFC into Bellator, but it was that second contract that made me really, really happy.
Rampage Jackson came to the UFC with a brain. He came to the UFC with a huge following from being in Asia with Pride. He was a personality before he came to the UFC. You don't see them putting marketing money behind him to blow him up.
Before I got in the UFC, I wrote down on a piece of paper a goal that I was going to make it to the UFC in 2015 and then I'll be the world champion before 2017 so I'm right on track. I pull out that piece of paper all the time and look at it. It's motivation.
I signed a contract to fight at UFC 187, so I'm going to fight at UFC 187, whoever it is against. It's the same thing.
At first, whenever I first got into the UFC, I was like, 'oh my God, I'm in the UFC.' When you come from where I came from, being in the UFC basically meant I was on top of the world.
I was happy to spend time with my family, get to know my daughter, who was born during The West Wing. I missed her first words. I missed her first steps. I'd leave work before she woke up and got home after she was asleep and didn't really know her. So it was important for that reason to reintroduce myself to the family after all of that hard work.
I feel for the guys in UFC who helped open the UFC up. Obviously, I'm getting blackballed there by the UFC, so I'm kind of feeling on both sides. If a promotion or somebody in that promotion decides they don't like an individual, then they get to make up the rules, and the fans don't get a say in it at all.
I listen to music before every race. Generally, there will be a song I'll get into over the weekend, and I play it all weekend, particularly when I'm getting ready for a race.
I made a good living in the UFC. This isn't a negative thing. I'll always love the UFC. I still do 'UFC Now,' and I love breaking down the fights, and I never miss anything, and if they need anything, they know who to call.
My first contract I was offered by the UFC, or my second contract, it was 1-and-1, 2-and-2, 3-and-3. That's $12,000 for the year. Don't complain to me about fighter pay. It was $12,000 for a year, and it was exclusive.
I was at Watford and got a knock-back when I was 16 and didn't get a YTS contract. They said I could find another club or go in and train three times a week after school. I'd been there since I was 10, so I got my head down and proved them wrong. Within a year, they had signed me up, and I haven't looked back.
I had knockback after knockback before I got anywhere. After I got my first record deal I thought that was it, then Gut Records went into liquidation. I was 20. I had no idea what that meant. I had a few days to get myself out of that contract or my work would be owned by someone else.
The stakes are high on every film now because there's the opening weekend. The first week is extremely crucial; increasingly, films are being judged in terms of opening day, opening weekend, then first week. People are going berserk promoting their films.