For me, MMA is like speed chess. It's like I'm herding a person into a certain position. Say my endgame is an arm bar. I'm not gonna actually take you and put you there. What I'm going to do is convince you that it's a good idea to move in the direction I want you to go.

The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it’ll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.

I kind of like to think of myself as the bad girl Olympian that would get kicked out of the Miss America pageant.

I'm living such a lucky and blessed life and I'm trying my best to deserve it.

I try not to get caught up on how cool I am. That way nothing ever gets done. I'm always thinking about what I haven't done.

I knew that I liked what I was doing, that it was what I wanted to do for a living, and that the profession didn't really exist so much. So I had to create it.?

You have to fight because you can't count on anyone else fighting for you. And you have to fight for people who can't fight for themselves. To get anything of real value, you have to fight for it.