I grew up in East St. Louis so I wanted to play baseball as a kid. Then I moved to Nebraska and became a football fan and wanted to play football. But I've always been fighting. Growing up in East St. Louis was hard. You had to fight there.

My goal is to win the belt, whoever it's on. I'm not gonna settle for anything less.

Of course I want to test myself. I enjoy fighting. But I also have six kids, and I want them to go to college. I hope that I can reach a point where I get the best of both worlds.

I think every [fighting] style has the same core. It's all about changing and positioning, transitions.

One reason why I started fighting was because of my family, and with that, you gotta pay the bills, but I enjoy beating people up in the first place, you know, so it plays hand in hand. Beating up, and getting money!

Rankings don't mean much to me because they can change after one fight. I just hope that I've at least gotten respect. A respect ranking is all I want.

Discipline. Honour. Respect. This is why I appreciate MMA.