Benson Henderson

“I will fight Chandler again and I will make him quit.”

“We live in a capitalistic society, don't we? Our country is based on the idea of the free market. Why not incorporate that free-market ideal into your career as a mixed martial artist?”

“At 170... I need to have a 97 percent performance. And some of the guys at 170, they need to have maybe an 85 percent performance. They need to not be at their best for me to beat them.”

“The funny thing I thought was, no matter what, people talked bad about cops. But as soon as something bad happened, when their car got stolen, who was the first person they called? Police officers. They expected them to help out and take care of them to get their stolen car back, and they did. That, to me, was a pretty big thing.”

“You work on you doing your thing, sticking to your game plan, not letting stuff distract you and get you into a danger zone.”

“Once you reach a certain point in your career, every fight is a new big fight, biggest fight of your life, biggest fight of your career.”

“You lay the groundwork, stay on the grind, and then eventually you get those big huge national deals with TV stations that are seen worldwide.”

“I don't like the people, the guys who feel the need to be Donald Trump and say outlandish things just for the sake of being in the headline, just for the sake of creating a stir and getting their name out there.”

“I don't want to be one of those guys who says, 'No, I won't fight that guy' or 'I won't fight the guy there; I need to fight him here,' or that sort of stuff. The UFC says, 'This is who you're fighting next,' and I say, 'Cool. Let's do it.'”

“You don't have to be 6-foot-7, you don't have to be 300 pounds. You can be 5-foot-2 and 135 pounds and still be one of the baddest dudes on the planet.”

“I fight quite a bit.”

“I like getting my hand raised and I'll take it any way I can get it. Slipping on a banana peel, by the skin of my teeth. By any means, you know?”

“People a lot of times have expectations for combinations, if you can throw something that they don't expect or throw something in a way that they don't expect it, it can be pretty successful.”

“It's a long journey to become successful, and you learn to grow with it. You grow with the small steps you take.”

“I like to have performances where I don't get too beat up and don't take too much punishment. I'm OK doing three or four times a year. That's fine by me.”

“The career span for athletes is very short-lived. So you aren't being, perhaps, the smartest person if you don't take care of your family when you're able to.”

“I just go out there and do what I do and the reason I think the Diaz's are so great, the reason they're so liked by fans and everybody - and I'm a fan of the Diaz brothers - is because they're real, they don't put on a show.”

“I think the mental aspect is important in all fights.”

“A lot worse things can happen than losing your world title. But I was able to come to terms with it, accept it, be mature about it.”

“Whether you want more money, whether you want more fame, whether you want more attention, whether you want a bigger house, whether you want a bigger contract, whatever it is you want, you have to win your next fight. That's it.”