I lost and I didn't die. I still had my health, family and people who loved me.

You have to go out there and fight as hard as you can. You have to go out there and work as hard as you can and do the right things. Then you go out there and perform and either it's good enough or it's not.

Obviously becoming champion is always going to be my goal and something I want to accomplish, but I can't control being the champion and winning and losing. You can't control the result.

The punches that don't knock you out are the ones you feel the most.

I will always believe in the team aspect.

I'm in this sport for a long time and I'm going to continue to fight with my whole heart and put on a show.

I just need to remember even if I don't get the title, I have an awesome life and an awesome family and friends.

I wanted to fight Cejudo only because it meant I was gonna win the title. It wasn't about fighting a person.

I never thought I was going to lose the first title fight. I was literally obsessed with the outcome only, and I couldn't imagine any other way possible. I thought I was going to explode and die before I lost. But I lost.

Cejudo would be awesome. It would be an honor to go out and fight an Olympian.

If I went out there and felt the best I ever felt and fought the best I've ever fought and lost, I would have to reconsider things and think differently. I would have a different outlook on my career.

I've always believed I was going to win a world title.

People would ask me about my legacy, and I would tell them my legacy is what I did. You can't change it. It's just what you do or what you did.

To me, the best part about winning the belt is hugging my wife after.

I've died freaking 100 times. What's another death?

I've been lucky. I've been in that top two or three for 11 years at two weight classes. It's been a crazy journey. It's been awesome.

I wasn't fighting in this sport from the beginning for any other reason than being the best.

I'm going to be world champion and have a belt, and people will correctly be able to say I was the best instead of I was very good.

It would mean a lot, but it's weird, because what's the title? It's an extra line on your Wikipedia page and a medal that says you won on that particular night. It obviously symbolizes more than that, but those are the things people think about.

The destination is the belt, but you never arrive at just the belt. You're always on the way to something else. You never truly arrive anywhere. But winning the belt, it's a nice pit stop.

For me, I've been a part of a super-team in Team Alpha Male for so much of my career.

I was sitting in the nosebleeds eating hot dogs and watching Georges St. Pierre win the world title from Matt Hughes. Like never in my wildest dreams if someone would have tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Hey, seven years from now you're going to be down there doing the same thing' would I have believed them.

Fans are going to give you crap no matter what sexual orientation you are.

I'm in a small percentage of people that get to do what they love to do for a living. I'm lucky.