I just believe that my heart is the best in the sport. And I believe that’s what carried me through my whole career. Not my talent or my power or anything like that. I just believe my heart.
A lot of people said I would never make it, and this and that, I’d never be a top 10 fighter, that I’d never fight for a title. Just stuff like that. Achieving all those goals and being the person that I am, this is going against everything everyone said I couldn’t do.
I just really want to put the past behind me, because it makes me angry thinking about it. But it’s also the reason I’ve made it this far in my career. It’s like, built up in me. It’s what I think about when I fight. My childhood.
The one thing about me, if it is a 15-minute fight, I’m fighting every one of them 15 minutes. And if it’s a 25-minute fight, I’ll be fighting all 25 until the bell rings.
If I’m the champion, the whole UFC division should be ashamed of themselves for a guy that had no damn skills being the champion. They should all just go relocate somewhere.
It would be cool to let people know that it doesn’t matter what kind of background you have in your past, that you can still make something out of your life.
You have 20 fights, you should know what it takes to get yourself ready. If you don’t feel like you’re ready, you let your coach know ‘hey we need to work on a little bit more of this.’
I look at all my opponents, and they could be something else. They could go out and get a normal, regular job. I look at myself and I can’t do that. I have a strike on my back. I can’t have a normal job. So, I’ve got to fight for everything I’ve got.
My heart outweighs all the talent. If they’ve got more talent, I believe that my heart will still overcome that. You’ve got to have heart to step inside the octagon anyway.
