Ultimately, I feel like I'm doing everything right. I'm slowly but surely climbing up the ladder. I'm taking out bigger names with every fight. Not just beating them on a point level - I'm finishing every single one of my opponents.
The people around me saved my life, not MMA. It was people who said, 'You're better than this,' who told me, 'You don't belong in this world.' MMA and jiu-jitsu and training gave me an escape.
On my block, I had all these guys coming in and out of jail. When I was 13, I was playing outside my house, and one of those guys came across the street and started cussing me out, wanting to fight me. People knew I trained kickboxing and would put the gloves on with my friends, so that made me a target.
Training full-on year round is great, and I love to stay in shape and always being ready, but I feel sometimes I don't have a life.
It's a little weird: you're headlining a show on TV, and obviously, people like to associate that with material things. I drive a - what is it - 1999 Chevy Blazer. There's no more cushion on the driver's seat, and the tires are about gone.
There's little windows that open up during the fight, to finish your opponent. Whenever those windows open, I'm jumping right through them without hesitation.
When I get in there, I try to really make sure there's no quit in me and that whoever I fight is going to have a long night.
My house was a revolving door. You walk in, you walk out, you get whatever you can eat, you leave, you go hang out with friends. I'm on my mission, my sister's on another mission, my dad is working trying to provide, my mom is trying to do the same thing. And somehow, we're all co-existing with each other.
Nobody expected me to finish Cub Swanson the way I did. When you see something like that, even I say, 'You're finally here. You're not only hanging with the best of the best, you're finishing them.'
I've gotta check, but I think I'll be the first UFC fighter in history to have the lead role in a big movie.
The Harbor Area is everything - Carson, Wilmington, San Pedro, Long Beach, that whole little bubble that I grew up in. I always throw it up after I finish fighting, I always throw up the Harbor Area. Out of pride. It made me who I am. It brought me my goods; it brought me my bads. It molded me into who I am.
I just want people to realize that it doesn't take much to be a good person. Simple things is all it takes.
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.