Top 537 Mma Quotes & Sayings - Page 9

I had to wear a fat suit to play Mma Ramotswe in 'The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.' She's described as being like a small elephant, but she loves her body and size. When we were filming in Africa, it was 110F. It was torturous. I drank a lot of water and ate cucumbers all the time, and underneath the fat suit I shed pounds - I couldn't help it.

MMA is in like the bare-knuckle era as where boxing once was. What it has to do is be given time to grow up. The sport is really just starting right now. Slowly, the public will become educated about and appreciate all the different technical aspects of the sport and athletes will develop without a strict adherence to a distinct art or style.

It's kinda like Hulk Hogan whereas any time Hogan walks into a room, he's got that distinctive look. Everybody, whether you're a wrestling fan or not, you know who he is. Chuck has that same thing. Whether you're an MMA fan or not, he'll walk into a room and everyone goes, 'Oh, that's Chuck Liddell.'

There are multiple reasons why I choose to fight for Bellator MMA and Scott Coker. One, they have given me the opportunity to develop and grow a business together. Two, because I already feel respected by the promotion as a professional athlete. And last but not least, because Bellator is offering a setup that no-one in the world can offer me.

Pardon me, not to sound elitist, but I wanted to put something together that I would enjoy. I thought at that time, what satiated me, what interested me, what intrigued me, I thought other people would like also. And you blend that with some forward thinking of predicting the UFC and MMA were going to be ultimately as big as it became.

Speaking on all of it in general, I think we, as MMA fighters, should be getting paid just as well as the NBA players, the NFL players and Major League Baseball, hockey as well, I'm not trying to skip any sport as I don't think any sport is superior to the other.

Kelvin Gastelum, there's many ways I can classify his style. I like it. He's improved. One thing I can say is that he's improved over his run in the UFC from 'The Ultimate Fighter' and now being a contender. But his style? It's very Mexican. You have the Mexican style of boxing, and he has a Mexican style of MMA, like smart Mexican style.

I don't need to chase titles because I've fought in so many title fights and so many title fight-level matches that if somebody thinks I need to give them a reason to give me a shot at any belt in the world, then clearly they don't know what they're about as far as MMA.

I do get paid well as an MMA fighter, but this isn't boxing and I feel like we should get paid like this is boxing.

In boxing, where most of the guys are from lower-class backgrounds and have darker skin than most of the fans, one might fear that the athletes are being exploited. But that narrative doesn't hold up very well in the world of MMA, where 99 percent of fighters are amateurs who will never earn a dime. They aren't seeking fame and fortune. For the most part, these guys are fighting because they want to and because it gives them an opportunity to strive for something big in their lives. It gives them a chance to become their best selves.

When I head into the cage for an MMA fight, for that time inside the cage, I hate the person standing across the cage. I want to beat him up and beat him up to the point where he never wants to go against me again. After the fight, I can shake his hands, and he - we can be best friends. It's the same thing in professional wrestling.

I think it's good to have different styles, though. I think it's good to have a lucha on a show, some Japanese flavor, I think MMA is a good thing, a little bit of the hardcore and the blood and guts is good. That is what makes a show for me.

For sure I think the traditional martial arts is a good background to have and definitely allows me to do a lot different things inside the cage. My wrestling background definitely helps me out a lot, but I don't think either one led directly to MMA.

I never hated Ronda. She's always talked about me; she did that to promote herself because when she started, nobody knew her, and she talked about me for people to know who she is. And she opened the doors for women's MMA.

I wish MMA was like boxing with fighters from different organizations being able to fight each other. It would be more interesting for the sport, the sport would grow more, everyone would be able to fight everyone.

When you go into MMA you really can't do it half-assed. If you do it half-assed, then you're going to get annihilated. You're going to get destroyed out there: there are some really good fighters out there.

I started ballet in my early 20s. I studied for about ten years. Ballet is probably the one of the hardest things I've done, almost like MMA. People don't give it a lot of credit and think it's easy but it's very difficult. For an athlete, you use muscles you really don't use and ballet is something I really respect.

Some people believe I have an automatic advantage over other female MMA fighters, so they think 'well she has to be stronger, because she used to be a male,' but if they look into the science of it and what the hormones do to the body, to the male body once taken over a period of time... it dissipates.

I train twice a day, and I make sure I eat right. I'm an avid tea drinker, and I enjoy the benefits of drinking MateFit. It gives me energy, speeds up my metabolism and helps me shed excess water weight. I also do everything from MMA sparring to strength and conditioning. I make sure to do a combination of different things with my training.

I have never seen anybody, and I don't think there has ever been anybody like Nick Diaz in all of MMA. Can you tell me another guy who is going to stand right in front of you, take big shots, and still keep coming at you with those body shots and those amazing combinations?

He puts on a great show every time he fights, so I enjoy seeing Mark Hunt fighting, and I'm glad he's still fighting; he's 44 and still fighting in a high performance, so it's good to see someone like this always putting on a great show and giving us, MMA fans, these great fights.

I feel like karma is something that's real. I try and be the best possible person I can be, but not only that I try to help as many people as possible and influence others in a positive manner. And that's all stuff brought on by MMA because I want to be successful so want to be the best possible person.

A double leg in MMA is completely different than what you would do in wrestling because the posture's different. You're standing upright as opposed to bent over; you're slipping a punch as a opposed to grabbing a guy's elbow and doing a traditional elbow pull or slide-by in wrestling.

I've fought Wilson Reis and Pat Curran two times and Daniel Straus four times. I'm sick and tired of rematches. I'm one of the most exciting fighters in MMA, but fans are tired of me fighting the same people over and over. I just keep knocking them out.

Of course, you've got Lyoto Machida. He's definitely a karate guy and he's made a big presence in MMA. I would say look up Lyoto Machida. There are some other karate guys who are phenomenal at what they do at their karate game, the point fighting game, Raymond Daniels, who is an amazing point fighter and very flashy.

I did see the Yahoo Sports story Kevin Iole wrote about how the ratings for TUF go up when there's a women's fight in the episode. I can't lie: it felt really good to see that the UFC fans - not only MMA fans but fans of the UFC who maybe hadn't seen any female fights before February of this year - look forward to watching the women fights so much.

It's not like I'm going to go out and change the world and convert everyone into MMA fans. There's going to be fans out there who are fans of combat sports and fans of contact sports but not everybody's going to be converted.

The people who critique me are the people who don't know about the sport. They don't really know about the rules of MMA. They aren't a real fan or follower of the sport, or they're just people who like to talk.

People can't always judge by the records. Maybe a guy has 11 wins in MMA but he's fought the best. Someone else has 11 wins but he's fought nobody. It's a difficult sport because someone can be a champion in four fights, look at Brock Lesnar. So records don't always mean a lot.

If you break down actual techniques and knowledge of MMA, I am more knowledgeable than the head coaches of all the guys I'm fighting. Forget the guys I'm fighting. Obviously I know more than they do, nobody is going to question that. But I also know more than the guys who are teaching them about fighting. I could teach them.

I will continue dedicating myself to MMA in 2015, but fighting in the ADCC interests me, yes.. The Jiu-Jitsu Worlds does not interest me, I see fighters with a different goal from mine. They want to hold your sleeve, grab you and wait for time to pass. They just want to stall the game. I do not see this as a real fight, I see only as a strategy to win. For me, Jiu-Jitsu is much more than that.

I'll get out and do Pilates. I'll get in the ring and do some rounds of kickboxing and grappling and MMA conditioning. There's a lot of unique stuff that I do, too, that a lot of people wouldn't imagine or think about doing, like box jumps. You get a 42-inch box and dumbbells and practice working on your explosion jumping up on those boxes.

I'd like to be remembered for being the one responsible for adapting Brazilian jiu-jitsu for modern MMA. For what I've learned from fence work and some ground positions. Lots of details I developed after years and years studying them, testing what worked on the mat, against the fence, what kept opponents on the ground, control situations.

I think we have tremendous media covering the sport of boxing, even if boxing is a little bit lost in popularity with MMA sports. And I think that with the show 'Lights Out' it's going to get more attention to the sport, and it's going to put more attention to the problems that athletes in general have.

I wasn't always the most fashionable, and I would come to school with cauliflower ear and ringworm. I got made fun of a lot. People called me 'Miss Man' and 'Guns,' and people directed a lot of karate jokes at me. I wish that I was at school now that MMA and martial arts is cool, but back when I was in school, people associated it with nerdy stuff.

Reach, and all that other stuff, doesn't play as big a part in MMA as it does in boxing. Guys don't really fight with their length all that much, because they have to worry about the takedown or kicks. They have to worry about so many other things that they can't just fight real tall.

I personally hated working out when I first started, but then I noticed it was the one thing I did for myself. It gave me more energy and made me feel more confident. I started rolling with it. I love going for jogs and walks in the morning with my cousin. Sometimes we do sunrise walks where we'll be up before the sun comes up and by the time it does we're up and going. It's really nice. I also started training MMA, mixed martial arts to keep it fun. It's stress relieving.

I think a lot of people miss what I've done in the MMA world. How I was able to market and control the industry so that people wanted to watch my fights. If you look at the fights I've been involved in - in the SEG UFC, in Japan, for Zuffa and today, they have been fights that have turned companies around.

I love training - I train a lot - but for 140, it's worse. You have to run every day. I ran six miles in the morning, six miles at night and train MMA and other arts, too. It's a lot of work, a lot of work.

I got to fight the greatest-of-all-time in my weight division - not once but twice. I was watching this guy when I was 16 years old when I first started kickboxing. I wanted to fight Aldo in a kickboxing match. A couple years later, I came to MMA and wanted to fight him. 10 years later, I got to fight the man twice.

The face of our sport is Dana White and out here in conservative New York, the way people think, bald-headed, tattoo'd, swearing people are just not a good representative of our brand and unfortunately people think that Dana White speaks for MMA, and they're confused.

I know he's not an MMA fighter, but can we just talk about how great Deontay Wilder is? He's must-see TV. Not since Mike Tyson has boxing had an American heavyweight who could hit like him... and talk like him, too. I love his interviews, his demeanor, his fighting style... the whole package.

Back when the UFC first started, I wanted to see what MMA was all about; at the time, I was training with Tank Abbott, and so I went to see him fight. While at the fight, I saw this guy fighting that I just crushed in high school wrestling, and I thought, 'Hey, I'm a street fighter, and I have a wrestling background,' so I gave it a shot.

Me and Nick Diaz hated each other. Nick Diaz used to send me e-mails. He found my e-mail, he talked to one of the MMA journalists at the time, there wasn't many. Gave him my e-mail and he would e-mail me hate mails.

Let's be honest here - 99 percent of MMA fans haven't got a clue what's going on. They don't understand the game enough to comment on any of that. They don't know how easy it is to have an impressive record. I could have 10 guys in my gym tomorrow, beat them all up, and there's 10 wins for my record. It is that easy. It is that easy to be 10-0.

Aang is an Airbender, and he became the Avatar after the last one died. He has to realize his destiny as the Avatar by mastering all of the elements - earth, fire and air. For me, I feel like I'm mastering all the different styles or elements of MMA. It's my destiny to become the Avatar of this game.

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.

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.

There's a reason that football players, that still choose to come over to train MMA. They're professional and phenomenal freak athletes and they know how to work as professional athletes. They know how to get better and know how to improve.

Even when I teach my MMA classes in the gym, it's hard to teach what I do. It's more of state of flow, a state of feel. It's not a robotic thing like one, two, three, kick, one, two, three, switch, jab, cross. It's completely unorthodox. Everything is about rhythm, tempo and pace. It's a different style, man.

MMA is pretty tough on your mind because it's a sport that's not just about winning. You really want to win bad, but it's tough when you lose. You get beaten. And it really messes with your ego, because nobody wants to get beaten by other people physically. It's not just a game. You get beaten physically.

I train twice a day and I make sure I eat right. I'm an avid tea drinker and I enjoy the benefits of drinking MateFit. It gives me energy, speeds up my metabolism and helps me shed excess water weight. I also do everything from MMA sparring to strength and conditioning. I make sure to do a combination of different things with my training.

I started ballet in my early 20s. I studied for about ten years. Ballet is probably the one of the hardest things I've done, almost like MMA. People don't give it a lot of credit and think it's easy, but it's very difficult. For an athlete, you use muscles you really don't use, and ballet is something I really respect.

I do MMA so I will train for whatever it is. Recently I did jujitsu and strength training, but other days I will do kickboxing, muay thai. It's just a matter of what I have on the schedule. Some days I just do cardio for an hour. I am not a yoga person. Whatever I do, it has to be extreme. I like higher-intensity workouts.

There are certain things that I always dreamed of, like fighting in the UFC. There's just certain things that I feel like haven't been accomplished there. There's such great women coming up in the sport; seems like a wonderful time to be in women's MMA.

I trained in martial arts and wanted to become a UFC fighter. That was my goal. I only really learned how to dance three weeks prior to making 'Step Up Revolution.' Dancing will always be fun, but MMA is something I'll never give up. I will eventually get back in the octagon and be fighting professionally again.

Just like basketball, MMA is all about taking what you're given and exploiting it as much as possible. Strength and stamina are important, but a clear mind might be your biggest asset. Of course, keeping a clear mind while someone twists your arm behind your head isn't all that easy.