If you break down actual techniques and knowledge of MMA, I am more knowledgeable than the head coaches of all the guys I'm fighting. Forget the guys I'm fighting. Obviously I know more than they do, nobody is going to question that. But I also know more than the guys who are teaching them about fighting. I could teach them.
People forget, I was 9-0, I was fighting Anderson Silva. I was fighting the best guys this sport has ever seen, one after the other, with no experience.
The heart of the sport is about the top guys fighting each other. This isn't WWE; this is fighting.
Why can men no longer be best friends? This is so stupid. Today if you show two guys being best friends they end up giving out an image that they’re gay. But guys don’t always need to be drinking beer, fighting in pubs or pulling women by the hair. They may have a deep affection.
Guys have a lot more to worry about when they're fighting me than they do fighting Khabib. He's just one-dimensional.
I may not be fighting the most popular guys like Canelo or GGG. But I am fighting real fighters, tough guys who want to prove that they belong and be world champions.
When you're fighting the best, best guys in the world, there's no glaring weaknesses. There's X-factors and there's small openings that you have to prepare for better and that's really it.
The longer I'm in this sport, the more I realize that it's not about the wins and losses that makes you a good fighter. It's about putting the time in and fighting the best guys possible and going after them. The outcome will take care of itself.
After I started training with some of the best in the world and fighting in the UFC, I started really wanting fights with guys I used to idolize and watch on TV. Guys like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture.
When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.
Things change when you're fighting the best guys in the world.
When you're angry, you can't fight rationally. Your body chemistry is all messed up. Your energy goes to all the wrong places. You can't do anything well except get angrier. That's why I like fighting guys who are pumped up on steroids. Fighting is all about relaxing and releasing tension, so your body is flexible and fluid, able to bend and flex quickly, like water. I like fighting angry guys who are really tense. They can't think right, and they can't fight right.
Even when I was fighting in China I met some guys on the local circuit that we're fighting, they didn't enjoy it, they wanted to be musicians and do other things, but they're just fighting because it pays the bills and they get money for it.
Guys who are my friends, guys who I visit their homes, I don't feel like fighting those guys.
In 2020, I want to set a standard where I'm only fighting the best guys.
I am the best in the world, and all these guys are fighting me to gain credit.