Benson Henderson

“Fighting is hard, fighting is tough. You get beat up in the body. It's hard; it takes a toll on your body.”

“I like to think that I'm a pretty intelligent fighter and haven't underestimated any of my opponents.”

“Every fight, I always try to get better and improve.”

“I'm pretty low-key. I'm pretty boring, to be honest.”

“When you actually have a little bit of food and some calories behind you, it just feels better.”

“I had a very big chip on my shoulder - I won't even lie to you. I had a very large chip on my shoulder.”

“I lost in my junior year of college in the NAIA national semifinals in 2005 and I'm not over that. I got inside leg tripped by Jake Dieffenbach and failed to go to the national title match. I don't get over things.”

“I'm as confident as any fighter out there.”

“A lot of times, people take other people's confidence for cockiness, airheadedness, rashness or brashness, and that's the light in which they see you when you say you always knew you'd be a champion, blah blah blah. Well, you have to be confident in the sport we do. As an athlete, in general, you have to be confident.”

“You want to say you're the best on the planet? Well, prove it by beating this person and that person. Beat everybody.”

“I always wanted to help people. I graduated from college and applied to a couple of police departments, Omaha and Denver, because I liked Denver a lot. It turns out they liked me and accepted me right away. I got hired both places, but I wanted to try fighting.”

“I think competition is good. The world we live in, we're a capitalistic society and we're all about having options, so I think it's good.”

“It's about how much hard work you put in and who works harder - that's who wins the fights. The fight itself, when the cameras are there, that's your chance to show off and say, 'You millions of people around the world watching this, look what I can do!'”

“You want to raise good kids, but it doesn't happen in one day. You want to be a great fighter, but it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time.”

“I'm not as big of a fan of being loud, brash and boisterous just for the sake of selling a fight.”

“Public image can change at the drop of a hat. One person can be a national hero and a month later because he wore the wrong colour he's violently hated so it just all depends.”

“I would like to fight for the Brazilian fans. I would like to fight Aldo in Brazil.”

“I'm not one of those guys that says something stupid just for the sake of getting more attention.”

“I've always held a pretty strong civic duty.”

“There's a reason that football players, that still choose to come over to train MMA. They're professional and phenomenal freak athletes and they know how to work as professional athletes. They know how to get better and know how to improve.”