Michael Chiesa Quotes

People think hard sparring will get you sharp. And you do get sharp in the gym. But anytime I've trained that way, I've actually been a little bit flatter in the fight. And the knockout shot hasn't come. It's almost because my training has been too hard.

When I prepare for a fight, I never expect it to be easy. I believe that that would create a chance for me to not give my best in the Octagon.

The day I step in the cage with Cyborg, I will be 100% prepared.

I train for whatever happens. I'm prepared for wherever the fight goes.

I'd like to fight and get close to that title shot - that's all I'm interested in. My whole purpose is to fight for the world title.

As the fighter, you're the one getting in the ring, you're the one risking injuries, you're the one risking your life - not only on the day of the fight, but in training camp. You're getting punched, you're training, you're sparring. You have to make sure that it's worth the risk - the compensation, the terms, the fights that you want.

It's MMA. I'm a complete MMA fighter. I expect everything. I'm ready for all of it.

From the very beginning, every time I trained for a fight, I didn't train to beat the guy I was fighting. I trained to beat Anderson Silva.

To be a successful fighter now, you have to go to a camp.

For what we do training, as a fighter, you have to be able to flip that switch where you turn into that savage, that guy that's prepared to go to war.

I've fought tactical fights in a gym, but never in a fight before.

You know, I'm never really 100-percent in any of those fights, because it's so hard to have perfect preparation for fighting and cutting weight and making 170 pounds, and being in the best shape for training camp and to make that cut.

You can hit the bags, the pads, and you can run and do your fitness and your weights as much as you want, but if you don't spar you just don't have that true experience, that true knowledge of how to beat a man in one-on-one combat.

Fighters don't just fight. Not the good ones who have long, long success. The guys who make championship runs. The guys who fight for world titles. They get fizzled out, chewed up and spit out like a revolving door and then the next guy or the next female comes in to take their spot.

I called my training camp Fighter's Heaven

Fighting is a sport; if you're not humble it's going to bring humbleness to you.

I'd always told people that I would have liked to pursue some sort of professional fight career. I don't know if I'm quite right for it, since I'm extremely prone to injury. I've been boxing for a couple years, and I've messed around with some Jiu-Jitsu, and I've always felt that there's such a passion in a real fighter's heart.

Training's training; boxing's boxing. Everyone does the same kind of stuff: they spar, they train, they do whatever they do to prepare for fights.

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.

My next fight is always the most important fight, so regardless if I'm fighting for the title or not, I always have to go in there and give everything that I've got.

I would love to fight anybody at the welterweight limit with a belt.

I would love to have a crack at Michael Bisping - with or without the gold, I'd want to have a crack at him because I respect him as a fighter, and he's a tough dude, and I'd love to swing it out with him.

I have other plans, other businesses. I have things to do. But I love to fight. I love this sport.

In the future, I want to have super-fights.

I really work on my defense a lot; that's what makes me a good fighter.