My main motivation is to prove I'm No. 1 in the world.

I'm dominant positionally, and my hands got power.

Some people who come from high levels in other backgrounds where they're used to being the best or used to being on a kind of pedestal, it's hard to kind of lower yourself again and just be one of the grunts. I kind of enjoyed that challenge in MMA.

One of my favorite topics to read about my whole life has just been famous athletes, and a lot of those have been combat athletes.

If you can't play the good guy, sometimes you've got to play the villain.

I think a lot of fans don't know MMA that well. They don't understand the subtleties.

If my team and family are happy for me, I'm not going to let what some fans think affect me in any way.

I just like taunting people.

I think I'm the best in the world at 170 pounds, so why would I need to go down? If, at some point, I beat everyone at 170, I'd consider going up. If I've eliminated all my challenges, yeah, at that point I would consider going up.

I don't think I could ever make 155. I made 163 for the Olympics, and that is a super low weight for me. I'm a fairly big person, and for me to make 163 was incredibly difficult.

In college wrestling, you see a lot of talented athletes come in and fail because Division I class wrestling is the pinnacle of wrestling in America.

I like coaching a lot.

I don't really want to be famous.

I have nothing against Bellator at all.

I have a great relationship with the whole Missouri athletic department. I made friends with everyone from the administrators to the janitors and everyone in between.

When I couldn't sign with the UFC, I think my goal of being Number 1 in the world went out the window. There's just no way of doing that at Welterweight without being in the UFC. I could go 50-0, and as long as it's outside the UFC, I'm not going to be Number 1.

People who are great at what they do, they do it the same way no matter who the opponent is.

If you look across my career, whether it be mixed martial arts or wrestling, it's very, very, very rare that I lose to someone that I'm not supposed to.

You need to take care of yourself first, and you can't think of others quite as much if you want to be a successful competitor.

When you're competing, you need to be selfish. You need to think of yourself first.

Dana White ain't going to take care of you the second after you can't make him a whole bunch of money.

You know what, the thing about Bellator was, I beat everyone they had.

Every single time you compete, I don't care what it is, you want to perform the best you can, and I feel like I'm doing that.

I have a really hard time with people telling me what to do.