“MMA is my love.”

My God given talent is my ability to stick with training longer than anybody else.

I wouldn’t change anything about my past, because it’s made me who I am today. You have to remember: You need to crack some eggs to make omelettes. And I did crack some eggs.

Success is just being happy. And I try so many different things. I do a lot of different things. Because I think God has helped me to love myself. I know who God is, and I love God.

If you dedicate yourself to something, you can achieve it. It’s simple, but it’s true, and your age is just an excuse.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don’t dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.

One thing I’ve done in my life is train year-round to compete at anything, anything. I’ve got an invitation now to maybe be on the karate team for the Barcelona Olympics. I’m debating whether I want to do that. I just love to compete, and I want to win.

I always said I wanted to be a great athlete, ever since I was an overweight little kid. I just love competing in any kind of athletics.

I’m just not a guy that loves to eat. I love to work and love to work out. I think I go against all the nutritionists who say you need to do this or need to do that, so I’m one of the oddballs.

Coming from a small town it was tough to dream big. When I grew up in a small town in Georgia, my biggest dream was one day to be able to go to Atlanta.

I don’t worry about protein. I don’t worry about all that. I’m from old school. I grew up in south Georgia. They didn’t worry about cholesterol or protein. They went out and worked and lived a long time, so I don’t put a lot of worries in my mind.

Growing up, I started developing confidence in what I felt. My parents helped me to believe in myself. I wasn’t the best looking guy, I wasn’t the best athlete in the world, but they made me feel good about myself.

When I started out as a little kid, I didn’t say ‘I just want to run football.’ I wanted to be a great athlete.

All these older kids here, and I’m the only one from a town that’s so small, if everyone breathed at the same time, you’d run out of oxygen. Man, there is nothing there.

I was a little different. I still say I’m a little different, because success to me is not having the most money, or having the biggest car or the biggest house.

P.E. was my life in school. Without it, I wouldn’t be standing here. It gave me confidence when I was an overweight kid with a speech impediment.