I'm ready for five rounds and I know how to fight five rounds, when I have to rest, and when I can push the tempo.
In five rounds, the guy who is better prepared is going to win the fight, so I like the idea of a five-round fight.
You can say what you want about the Stephen Thompson fight, but you cannot disregard that me and Stephen went five rounds in a technical fight. Apparently, he's one of the best strikers in the UFC, Stephen Thompson.
There's a reason why MMA is only three five-minute rounds, or five fives when it's a title fight. MMA is so much more demanding on the body - the wrestling, the changing levels, all that takes a lot out of you. Boxing is a breeze for us after MMA.
I train to fight five rounds, but if we can end the fight in the first round, it's even better.
There's never been a southpaw fighter to make it five rounds with me. These are championship fights, and most of them can't even make it out of the normal rounds. Fought Chael Sonnen, TKOed him in round one. Fought Vitor Belfort. He made it to round four when I ended up submitting him.
Romero, I was beating him two rounds to zero, I was dominating the whole fight. He was able to catch me with a punch with about a minute left. If I would have just danced around for a minute, I would have got that win.
It doesn't matter in MMA if you're a woman or a man. You're going to fight 5 rounds, 5 minutes (per round). If they want a real world champion, then the fights should be 12 rounds, 3 minutes (per round) for a woman boxer and you'll weed out some of the world championship fighters.
When you lose badly, when you get knocked out and the ref has to stop it, that's when you know it's been a bad fight. But when you lose a fight having over the 12 rounds and you don't look like you've done any rounds, that's when you know it's quite good.
Michael Bisping, we had a five round battle. I beat him for five rounds and tripled the amount of strikes landed. I landed more take-downs in that fight than had been landed on him in his entire career.
I don't have to rush the fight. I have five rounds to win.
I can always do five, five-minute rounds, any day, even if I was drinking yesterday or doing whatever. I'm a seasoned athlete, an endurance athlete, and I'm always working out.
I will knock out Vernon Forrest in two rounds whether I have a cigarette or not. I know a lot of people want to see me fight more rounds. So, if HBO wants, they can pick two sparring partners for me to fight after I knock out Forrest. That way, the audience can see me fight 12 rounds.
I want to get well prepared to fight five rounds when the time comes.
When I first got into the sport it was all about who could cut the most weight, who could be the biggest on fight night. That's the same era when you're sparring 10 five minute rounds, new partner every two and a half minutes, that era of just really hard weight cutting and really hard full contact training.
Donaire is a very good champion. We both have speed and power. The difference is intelligence. I was born to fight. The bigger the fight the better. If Donaire isn't right, he's going to get knocked out. Maybe five rounds, maybe less. Not sure yet. But you know what? Donaire stepped up and took this fight. He didn't have to. For that, I respect him for getting in the ring with me.