“When I fought with Michael Johnson, when I took his arm for the kimura, I can break it, but I go very slowly, be careful, because I don’t want to give him injury.”

I want to stay humble, but I have to talk because the other guys talk too much, and I understand the crazy power the UFC PR machine has.

I don’t know about politics so much. I’m a professional athlete.

Next fight? If the UFC tell me, ‘What do you want?’ I’m going to say Tony Ferguson.

My best background is, like, smash opponents. I all the time go forward. I all the time try to take down somebody. Make him give up. This is my style, you know. This is what I do all my life.

I never have a problem with the weight cut. My number one enemy is injuries because I train so hard.

I train, eat, sleep, and repeat.

My style is not like anyone’s. I’m not a typical wrestler.

They’re all fake belts. To be honest, I think real belt is Tony Ferguson’s.

I think about only me.

You have to punch hard for knockouts, and to beat me, you have to knock me out.

Of course I am tough, but I am smart, too. I’m more smart than tough. People watching my record and say that this guy is tough. This is not about tough; this is about mind. You think when you fight. This is about everything.

Where is Conor? He wanna fight with a bus. I want to fight with a real gangster. Iaquinta, thank you so much.

I don’t fight for the money. I fight for my legacy. I fight for history. I fight for my people.

I never fight for the money, but every person is different.

I don’t think about, ‘Oh, I’m finally getting my respect,’ because I don’t care about this.

I care about my legacy.

It hurts that I was just one page in the book of your life. But what hurts more is knowing you’ll revise that chapter someday, and you’ll erase me completely.

But if we could have been together, what would there be to dream of?

Stranger than fiction is the fiction that you are a stranger to me.

I miss the me I was with you.

I never knew the aftermath would be this painful. I never knew that you miss someone with the same fervour with which you loved them.

It’s been a long time since we said goodbye and yet the echoes of it are still ringing in our ears.

I am not going to apologise for the things I didn’t do and neither should you.

I can live neither with you, nor without you.