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 have no problem with Brock Lesnar being a part-timer, because he's earned that spot. He's a multiple time champion in WWE, a former UFC Champion, NCAA amateur wrestling champion, so his accolades speak for themselves.
When I got into the sport and wrote down my goals, it was never to be a UFC main event or to be a on a UFC main card. It was to be the UFC champion.
I'm a giant UFC fan. Huge. I watch UFC all the 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.
There were a lot of new opportunities after I won the belt. People look at you more when you're the champion, UFC looks at you differently, you can negotiate bigger purses.
I think that every single fight you have is to prove yourself. Even if you're the world champion, the UFC champion of the world, you're still proving yourself; people are coming to beat you.
I'm training to be the champion. I become the champion of whatever I put my mind to, so I believe I will be the champion. I think the UFC will be able to realize that, and we'll see what they say.
The Latino people in the U.S. and the Mexicans in Mexico need a UFC champion. We have a rich tradition in boxing, and to not have a Mexican heavyweight champion is unheard of. We need it. I'm glad I'm able to be in a position to give them that champion they so desperately want.
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've never worn a dress shirt that's been comfortable. I've always just worn dress shoes. On more than one occasion, I've heard that a champion should dress like a champion. But I'm a champion because of who I am. Who I am is not that guy. If everybody wears three-piece suits, everyone looks the same.
Fighting in the UFC means that I'm at the top of the sport, and it means that I'm able to pursue my goal of being a champion in the UFC.
I wanted to study to be a petroleum engineer and get my engineering degree and fight in the UFC at the same time. But unfortunately, to be the best I can be at the UFC, I needed all focus to be there, and more focus, also.
My ultimate goal was always that I want to be known as one of the greatest of all time. The first step was obviously to be UFC champion.
I was world's champion in every aspect of the life. Whether it was sitting in a steak house eating a steak or getting onto the edge of the ring with two or three people standing there, it was all the same to me. I was world's champion, and for that reason, I was world's champion.
If I'm the champion, the whole UFC division should be ashamed of themselves for a guy that had no damn skills being the champion. They should all just go relocate somewhere.