I'm not just a wrestler anymore. I'm a very well-rounded fighter.
I want to play football at a high level.
Conditioning is the most important thing in MMA.
That Evan Dunham fight, I went back to not being serious. I was going to the lake and literally brought some wrestling mats down with me. We have a shop at the lake where we park the boat. I'd throw the mats in there, wakeboard all day, and train all night. I was having a good time, getting back to work.
I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.
I'm more vicious in sparring when I am around 160 pounds or coming down from heavier than that.
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.
If someone thinks, 'I'll spend the off season working on my fitness and I'll come back a better cricketer,' I don't think that's enough. You need to spend a lot of time working on your skills and honing your skills.
Triple H is a former bodybuilder. He's all about bodies. He thought that Hulk Hogan was the greatest wrestler in the world. They think Ultimate Warrior was the greatest wrestler in the world because that's what they're attracted to, but he's not really a wrestling fan like I grew up. I was a wrestling fan.
MMA in an individual sport, and you're just pushing yourself to be as dangerous as you can be in 15 minutes.
Obviously, I'm trying to keep improving at everything, from the wrestling to the jiu-jitsu to the striking to the transitions, every part of my MMA aspect.
I train with top guys like Chuck Liddell and Lyoto Machida, I have trained with Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, and nobody have ever dominated me.
Professional tennis has become an extremely physical and unbelievably competitive sport. Injuries are the bane of tennis players, and it goes with the territory.
I've trained with Douglas Lima, he's a tough kid, but I could feel the weight difference.
I'd have to change all my training style to fight Cyborg.
I've got to become 'The ultimate Ultimate Fighter.'
I think when you train in just one sport separately, you learn more.
You can't just be anyone who is off the streets and come do what we do. You have to train, and there has to be something within you. You have to have athletic ability... What we do is 100 percent athletic. I feel like it's one of the top athletic programs out there when you consider professional sports.
The American professional schedule gives players a six-month off-season, so many of us have become pickup regulars while training without an organized team.
If you look at some of the strongest athletes in the world, they're gymnasts. And they're the most flexible. You can be very strong, very flexible, and still be able to move.
I will move up to heavyweight and show them all how good I am.
Some guys can do more talking in the ring, other guys do posing, body building, whatever the hell they do in the ring. But I don't have the big body, and I'm not the big smooth talker, but I can get in the ring and wrestle.
If I was really trying to be the best fighter in the world, I would be in the best shape and taking it more serious but I'm not.
I wanted to be a pro athlete. I knew that.
Conditioning is essential to success in basketball.
