T.J. Dillashaw Quotes

I'm the guy that once graduated Ranger School - a place that starves you and denies you sleep for over two months - and took a fight six days later in the IFL and won.

MMA in my opinion is the hardest sport in the world, no doubt.

When I train for a fight, you roll around, you catch someone in a move, you let them go. You just let go and keep going.

When I was competing, I would run daily 20 kilometers, and in addition to that, I'd put in many hours of fighting and sparring. That's why I was always able to keep the speed in the ring. I would train so hard that sometimes it was not only hard to stand up, but it would also be hard to lay down.

Part of my gift as a fighter is being a human punching bag.

I like to step into the Octagon and just show what I'm made of.

There is a ferocity to MMA and to the training, but there's such a humanity to it too. It takes so much sacrifice and humility to get into it and to rise through those levels. If you look at the fights as a means to test who you are, every one of these fights is an opportunity to see how far you're willing to go up against yourself - and to find and define your limits.

Getting ready to wrestle is like getting ready for a car crash. Getting ready to work with Brock Lesnar is like knowing you're going to get hit by a bus and the bus is going to back over you. If I'm going to work 'WrestleMania,' 16 weeks out I have to start training like I'm Mayweather getting ready for a fight.

When I first got into the sport it was all about who could cut the most weight, who could be the biggest on fight night. That's the same era when you're sparring 10 five minute rounds, new partner every two and a half minutes, that era of just really hard weight cutting and really hard full contact training.

MMA guys, we sparred a lot of them training for KSI because of the wild punches.

MMA has a referee, and you're wearing gloves. I'm in there with another volunteering participant that's out there to win some prize money.

You have to be able to take a punch. A strong neck is really important.

I'm a white middle-class public schoolboy so I'm not particularly tough. But it turns out I don't mind going in the cage. I can dig in. And it's interesting watching people spar and train. There's no anger. It's all technique and delivered with venom.

I came into MMA and I had a strong core and a lot flexibility. I could put myself in a lot of different positions when it comes to scrambling.

With my style, training is very rigorous. You're toe-to-toe, getting beat on six days a week for five or six weeks leading to a fight. There's no fun, no glamour.

I've been in a few fights where I keep drilling guys - Carl Froch, those sort of people - and they just keep coming.

Give me the action. I come from a place of fighters. My father was a fighter, a boxer, and Penny loves to box. So give it to me until my body won't do it anymore. Bring it on.

I'm a mixed martial arts fighter. But at the end of the day, all experience will help. And experience I got from that fight, it will help me to win this fight.

With China and North Korea, you never know who you'll fight. The faces are always changing, and suddenly young opponents come up. It's all about winning at the Olympics, not about winning pretty. I'll just keep trying to improve, add more muscle power, and make sure I'm the last one standing.

It takes a lot of courage in that cage no matter who you are.

It's the fight game. I'm ready for everything.

Wrestling has made me very mentally strong, conditioned me really well for MMA, and given me phenomenal balance.

MMA in an individual sport, and you're just pushing yourself to be as dangerous as you can be in 15 minutes.

Everyone at home sitting on their couches, they think it's so easy to fight. Stepping inside that cage is probably the hardest thing in the world to do. I truly believe that.

I love who I am, and I want to stay in MMA.