TYRON WOODLEY

I'm just going to go out there, pop on my leather gloves, and constantly make connections outside the Octagon, and that will make me bigger in the Octagon.

I think a kid from the inner city, if I had to recruit, is the ideal person for MMA. They'd be less likely to be affected by hard work. They'd be less likely to not appreciate something when someone is helping them out, because they probably don't have a ton of stuff.

If a guy isn't in a position to fight for a world title, or if he's not in a place where I can intercept his road to the title, don't offer him to me. I'm not in this to just fight guys for the sake of fighting. I'm not in this to make friends with the people who work in the organization.

There's something about somebody who does something special in the UFC that they're allotted certain freedoms and wiggle room around the rules. I'm just not in that category. So if I want to fight Georges St-Pierre or Nick Diaz or Nate Diaz, then it's all the hooplah and all the talk about it.

I'm just trying to get paid; I'm going to be straight up.

In the past, I said I didn't want to speak on certain issues because the second I said one thing about race, then 'Tyron's playing the race card.' But if you really think about it, what is the race card? The race card is that the man held me down, I had unfair circumstances, and I wasn't able to be successful because I was held down.

My end goal is not to break the record for cashing in the most. I want to be treated fair and what I feel is fair, but that's not my sole purpose; that's not my purpose.

No one should ever bring my muscular build up and think it is going to have something to do with my output in the fight.

What is there not to market? I fight like hell. I'm built a certain way, never taken performance-enhancing drugs.

How do I have to continue to excessively prove myself and always be the underdog? I don't get the respect I deserve, and that leads me to believe that maybe it is a colour issue.

USADA tested me, and I came back positive for hard work and beast-like characteristics.

Fighting is the only sport where fans don't understand this is our living.

There's a lot of guys in my weight class that are talking - they're chirping. Everybody wants the title. Everybody wants to fight me; everybody thinks they can beat me. People are talking because they think I can't fight.

Fighting, especially at this level, is about getting through adversity. You position yourself mentally to go out and take on obstacles that stand in your way. In the Octagon and in life, you face tough situations and have every chance to quit, but the more adversity you push through, the more likely you are to be successful.

God does things on his time. He wanted me to sit down and wanted me to get some other aspects of my life back in order.

We also have to think as fighters, celebrities - whatever you want to call us - that we have an obligation to point out stuff that's just completely wrong.

I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division, maybe the second-highest on the UFC roster.

No matter what anybody says or thinks, nobody believes that I'm not the number one welterweight in Strikeforce. I think that's not even a question.

One of the things I like most about Roufusport is, really, the culture. A lot of times, you're training in fight camps and running and hitting mitts and sparring. Those things get old kind of quick. I like the fact that they allow fun into the room.

I used to be in a street fight at least twice a week, so locking me in a cage with somebody, with a set of rules and a referee to jump in if something get ugly, and a time limit, like, it don't scare me.

Wrestling is second nature: I've been doing it for so long, so if it looks like someone's leg is available, it made sense for my first three fights that I would shoot for legs.

I gotta be able to beat good guys at any moment. I think that's what I'm taking.

I've always felt like the underdog.

I'm a huge fan of the Diaz boys. I'm a huge fan of what they've done for our sport. I feel like it's not about the rankings anymore. Sometimes the rankings are a little shaky.

When you're watching people in non-title fights making four times the amount of money that a champion makes, it takes away the flavor of being a champion.