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

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.

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 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.

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.

I don’t think I’m a bad guy from Dagestan. I think I’m a good guy from Dagestan. But for my opponents, for sure, I’m a bad guy because when I go to the cage every time, I smash my opponents.

Give me 30 minutes rest, little drink of water. Give me 30 minutes, and I can fight with anybody.

When I say ‘hero’, do not picture someone with strength to fight and conquer evil – because evil is not something that can ever be conquered or defeated. Evil is natural. It is innate in all humans.

Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight?

Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change.

There cannot be a happy ending to the fight between the raging gods and humans.

Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends.

Winning is important, but survival is even more important. If you don’t survive, you don’t get to fight the next battle.

By accepting life’s limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.