If guys step back and are just honest about what they think looks good on them, it’s really hard to lose. You can spot guys who take on personas that are not theirs.
I love Rampage fans. I don't love all MMA fans, but I love Rampage fans. And I really want my fans to know that. I think my fans know when they come in contact with me.
People shy away from it [MMA] because they think it's a brutal, brutal sport, and I've said, 'Guys, MMA is safer than football and boxing,... And people tell me they don't believe it. Am I not the most credible person to give you the answer to that?
If you step back from it and really think about what the mass media does on a global scale, the most significant thing it does is coordinate behaviour.
If we're talking about guys who set the tone, you've got to go way back. But if we're talking about guys who made it possible for guys like A.J. Styles, Shawn Michaels kind of opened that door, along with Daniel Bryan.
The thing about Rampage is, Rampage always comes to excite the fans. I love the fans.
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.
I feel bad for guys in other sports that never work a job. Think about it, most MMA fighters have had to do something for money whereas a guy who was an athlete in college sport then went straight to the pros, he's never had a skill outside of sport.
My favorite fight was when I fought Rampage. I always wanted to fight Rampage because of the way he fights. It's about pride. The way he comes forward. My friends in Brazil would always tell me they wanted me to fight Rampage. When I fought him, it was a big deal for me. It was the first big fight I was in. It was a great fight.
We're really at this point where we can take a step back and think about the next big things that we want to do.
It's sort of like in the movie The Karate Kid when Daniel said he needed Mr. Miyagi. And Mr. Miyagi gave him that confidence to believe he really didn't. These guys think they really need me right now, but they don't. When I come back, we'll all need each other to step up our games and do what needs to be done.
Quinton and Rampage are not the same person. Quinton is kind of scruffy. The Rampage is the toughest dude you'll ever want to meet.
The initial thought is like, 'Damn. Most guys used to retire after the Achilles injury.' Nobody really but Dominique Wilkins has come back to be the same person as he used to be or better; but now, more and more guys come back and they're healthy.
That's why guys in MMA call each other out most of the time. High reward and low risk.
What got me into MMA first was that I was a wrestler, and I was a gangbanger getting into trouble a lot and getting into fights. I grew up in a family of 15 in a four-bedroom house. It was dysfunctional, so that alone made me want to be an MMA fighter. It's really the only sport where you gotta basically depend on yourself.
I'm talking about the '60s really. People go interview these guys and ask them, "Do you still think music can change the world?" I mean, go talk to Graham Nash about that. What's he going to tell you? Ask David Crosby. These guys are still out there. They're playing their hits at Staples Center and those are really valuable songs. I'm talking about a couple of the guys who got knee-deep into really believing music had a great service beyond radio. I believe it did. And I think a lot of those songs are great.