I always have my group of friends at the gym. We used to go hang out somewhere before. Now we're just hanging out at the gym. We have sparring parties where everyone beats each other up, but then we all eat my dad's cooking, and I hire a massage therapist, so everyone is just kicking back and having a good time. I just keep the environment great.
Put on a camera and put on some whatever, and you're an actor. Put me in a cage, I'm a fighter. Put me somewhere else - I'm in an ocean, I'm a surfer. I don't know what I am, I just do it all. And I want to be good at everything.
It's never been about an opponent. I don't care who it is. Just throw them in front of me and let me do what I have to do. Let me earn the belt.
Obviously it's great to train at home and not have to travel and stay in the same time zone. That's always great.
I am who I am. I'm a cool person, and I don't think I need to sell myself. I'm just going to let the fights keep talking.
I very strongly dislike fear. I always say fear keeps us from living our lives and doing the things we want to do.
When I go in to fight week, I go, 'Maybe I'm going to be that guy on the highlight reel that gets knocked out.' I'm always thinking, 'How am I going to react? Am I going to be a sore loser?' I'm almost checking myself in case something bad happens.
As a pro, in the beginning, I had to sell tickets to get paid. So you gotta be a hustler, and you gotta worry about fighting.
A lot of people have these fancy facilities, these fancy training atmospheres, high-tech this and that... I believe it's about the fighter and how much work is he willing to put. I'm trying to show the world that I can make it happen from a garage. People don't believe it, but I know how to work with what I've got to get to the top.