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'm capitalizing on a lot of mistakes that champions made before me. I hear a lot of guys say if they were champion again they would do things differently and respect people more. I plan to do that while I'm still champion.
The belt doesn't represent me; it's how you deal with people, how you represent yourself as a champion. The belt is a sign of a champion, but what makes a champion is the things I have just said.
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.
If no one knew that I was trans - let's say that I made it very, very far. Let's say I went to the UFC and became a UFC champion, even, won the belt title, took it home and no one ever knew - that would be great for me.
Obviously UFC was one of those kind of dreams that we weren't sure if we were ever going to reach, so for us, the biggest belt was the Cage Contender belt.
It was priceless. Being the UFC champion and having my kids in the Octagon, my wife, them holding the belt. That was like a movie.
Experimental film by the '70s had become much more mainstream after 'Bonnie and Clyde' and stuff in the late '60s, when you were seeing bigger movies where people were exploring the medium a lot more.
There doesn't need to be hatred after a fight, because it's all said and done. I'm cool with a lot of my opponents in the UFC. There's people I've fought who were my friends in kickboxing tournaments and after we were still cool.
People working on bigger ideas on a more protracted timeline will be more on the stealth side. They aren’t releasing new PR announcements every day. The bigger the secret and the likelier it is that you alone have it, the more time you have to execute. There may be far more people going after hard secrets than we think.
The belt is great. You know what comes with the belt? Bigger paydays, pay-per-views, and a lot of stuff.
When you watch 'UFC,' there is not a cliche champion who looks the same every time.
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.
After you get a season under your belt, you learn a lot of lessons. It's a much bigger challenge, logistically, in terms of production.
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.
Anyone in the UFC, that should be your goal, to get the UFC belt and to fight for that title.
There are guys that just entered the UFC and people already talk about fighting for the belt. Guys that have one fight there and say call a jiu-jitsu phenom. They haven't done anything in the UFC yet to deserve all that attention.