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.?

In MMA it’s a lot less intimidating because it’s not like you get one shot at a title every four years. You get a title shot every couple of months ... With the Olympics, you don’t always have this, so there is so much more pressure involved.

I respect Georges St. Pierre as a businessman and an athlete. I don't have anything against him personally. But he's not the kind of fighter I like watching.

If I could have had everything exactly the way I wanted, this is how I would have written it down. Win all my fights in the first round, then go to the UFC and headline a show, and have it as a pay-per-view and at home. People's dreams don't come true like that.

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.

Most people focus on the wrong thing; They focus on the result, not the process. The process is the sacrifice; it's all the hard parts - the sweat, the pain, the tears, the losses. You make the sacrifices anyway. You learn to enjoy them, or at least embrace them. In the end, it is the sacrifices that must fulfill you.

Look at my face. Does it look like I can take a good hit?