I feel like - and I think the UFC feels it as well - that I put on good shows every time I fight. The fans have responded well to when I fight - they seem to enjoy it - and that's what I strive to do.
To stay in the UFC while fighting top opponents... tell me one easy fight I had in the UFC. I have a history in the UFC.
In the UFC, you are only as good as your last fight. It's really a fight-by-fight type of career in the UFC.
I would love to fight a lot more often, but of course it's the UFC, and whenever they feel that they have an opening, then they can put us in there because there's so many fighters.
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.
When I first started, I lived in Vegas because I was fighting in the UFC, and I was still fighting after the UFC.
In my opinion, whenever you get two guys who want to fight each and two guys who want to be in a good fight, you let them fight.
I don't want to be one of those guys who says, 'No, I won't fight that guy' or 'I won't fight the guy there; I need to fight him here,' or that sort of stuff. The UFC says, 'This is who you're fighting next,' and I say, 'Cool. Let's do it.'
We're all fighting for a reason. We're not fighting to just fight. There's got to be some type of reward at the end of the rainbow and that reward is a big, shiny, UFC gold belt. That changes every fighter's life dramatically for the better.
I'm in the UFC; this is a sport about fighting. If someone wants to fight me, or someone wants to fight someone else... you're here to fight each other, so I get it.
It's up to the UFC, but I'll fight whomever, whenever. Minus maybe Vegas.
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'm always training to fight the best fighters in the world, and if the UFC wants me to fight Georges St-Pierre, then I will fight him.
When you put the pressure on yourself, it's not good. If you fight afraid to lose, you wind up not fighting that good.
If you win one fight in the UFC, you're good. If you win two in a row, you're great.
You always have to play it safe, no matter who you're fighting. I don't fight any easy guys. I haven't maybe ever in the UFC. To me, you've always got to be safe. But I don't want to have my foot on the brake at all. My foot is going to be on the gas, and I'm going to be smart at everything.