I feel like a lot of my fans hold high expectations of me when it comes to inside the Octagon - not so much outside of the Octagon - but I feel like most of my performances are pretty dominant, so I don't feel like I have the luxury to not perform in an extremely impressive fashion.
I fight for the women. I try to do my best inside the Octagon to fight like a man; then, people will respect girls in the Octagon.
I got to share the Octagon with Clay Guida. I got to share the Octagon with Cub Swanson. Now I'm going to share the Octagon with Frankie Edgar. These are things that, as a fighter, you always dream of.
I think the mental preparation isn't something that you can work on in one large sum. It has to be a collective collaboration of doing little things for your mental state constantly throughout the prep and managing your life outside the Octagon, managing your life in transit to the Octagon, managing your life once you get to training.
It feels like my life is much more than fighting in the Octagon.
Fights aren't won in the octagon, they're won in the months leading up to them, in a near-empty gym, in the lost hours of a day, whether I feel like it or not.
I'm just going to go out there, pop on my leather gloves, and constantly make connections outside the Octagon, and that will make me bigger in the Octagon.
During the fight you really don't feel much; you've got so much adrenaline going. Luckily I've mostly been on the winning side, so I haven't felt much pain inside the octagon.
I've done nothing but show up and fight, go to work inside the Octagon, outside the Octagon, and do things right. But people want to talk about me and discredit me.
To be honest, any one of those guys that I've stepped in the Octagon with - Darren Till, Anthony Pettis, Tyron Woodley - I would love to step back in the Octagon with those guys.
I do feel incredibly blessed in my life. I've been given amazing opportunities in my life and even when I'm tired, like right now, I try not to lose sight of all the blessings in my life. I'm enjoying it. It's what I've always dreamed of doing. I don't know if I'll ever get to the point in my life where I feel like 'I've made it'. But right now I'm happy with where things are at and hopefully it will continue to grow.
Honestly, I feel like everything in life happens for a reason, and my son has been the greatest gift that God has given me in my life and been the most game-changing thing that's happened to my life, in a necessary way.
The first time I crawled into the octagon, I just felt like an animal, you know? Like a creature, like I wasn't quite human.
I feel like I've been playing Spider-Man my whole life. He's a character I've been pretending to be in my bedroom since I was a kid - so I've been preparing for this forever, I think.
I've been married to music my entire life. I've been dedicated to it. I know what it takes to do it. And ever since my brother has been taken from me, I feel like I have to live for both of us.
I feel like I'm a boy, but I don't feel like I should've been born with different parts of my body or anything like that. I feel like it's just all in how I dress and how I talk and how I look and feel, and that makes me happy.