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.
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.
That’s what really gets me going, thinking about my past. I think about all the tough times and bad times I’ve had in my life and I bring all that into the Octagon. That’s only because it’s hard going in there trying to fight someone who didn’t do anything to you.
I’ve been in that situation three or four times before where I’m losing the fight – the fight seems almost over with – and I knew I had to finish him and stop playing possum as much.
