Takedown Defense Quotes

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

One thing I took - you know, especially from boxing at a young age - from my coach was, if you're a jiu-jitsu guy, and you only cater your training to jiu-jitsu, there's going to come a day and time in your career when you face a guy who is a great wrestler, has great takedown defense, and he's going to make you look silly.

Jacare, he has power. We're two strong guys. He relies on being aggressive and coming forward. He looks to get the takedown. He's punching and he's shooting. I've never been taken down in a fight. Now, I'm not disregarding that I could be taken down, but I just know that I have a little bit more when it comes to giving up takedowns.

My low center of gravity allows me to defend takedowns a lot better than most people. It's very hard to get to my legs. It's going to be really hard to take me down. There are a lot of positives to being my size.

I'm good everywhere. I can defend the takedowns. I can get a guy down if I want them. I can keep it standing and strike. I can do it all.

I've been working on wrestling aside from MMA. That is something that I wasn't doing in the past so I'm getting more confident in my wrestling. I learned that I didn't know a lot about takedowns, it's a really big gap and I'm catching up and learning a lot.

I finished Edson Barboza in a d'arce choke. What else do you want? He's very hard to take down. Spinning heel kicks, spinning kicks. I took some of his most powerful shots and I just kept coming forward. I'm the Boogeyman out there.

Reach, and all that other stuff, doesn't play as big a part in MMA as it does in boxing. Guys don't really fight with their length all that much, because they have to worry about the takedown or kicks. They have to worry about so many other things that they can't just fight real tall.

The way you stop a takedown in wrestling is to meet force with force. You don't try to go away.

He's a complete fighter. He has some flaws, of course, but he has a good stand up game, good takedowns and a good ground game. He's a complete fighter, and that makes him dangerous. He hits hard, but I believe I can stop him. I believe I can finish this fight earlier. I'm not underestimating him, but I've learned a lot in my past fights. I have learned a lot in my fight against (Chris) Weidman, so it's likely that I will finish this fight before the fifth round. Whatever it takes. I'm training hard on my grappling skills and my striking, so I want to finish him with a knockout or a submission.

I think Khabib is going to take him down immediately, or create some kind of scramble immediately. I don't think Poirier stops his takedowns.

The probability I knock out Chael Sonnen is very big. Man, everybody knows his game. He is never going to take me down and I'm going to break his nose with my knee.

One element of wrestling that I know what I grew up with we put a lot of emphasis towards was the takedown. But, you could win an Olympic championship and never score a takedown, and I don't know if MMA fans are even aware of that.

People don't understand, yeah I'm alright as a wrestler, but I beat people in the takedown because of my distance control - because of my Karate. This is something I learned since I'm 7 years old.

The kind of wrestler that's going to do well in a combat style event like MMA is one that can explode through - doesn't need to spend time on the mat - hit his opponent, get him off his feet, and get on top quickly.

The ground game of Derrick Lewis isn't that good.