Cain Velasquez

“To say I was looking forward to fighting in Mexico for the first time is an understatement.”

“I have the Mexican blood. I'm proud to be Mexican.”

“I never go into a fight thinking, 'I have to finish this guy' - that's not a part of my game plan. I go out there and fight the way I fight.”

“I grew up watching my parents work in the fields. That's where I get my work ethic from, because I saw them work hard my whole life.”

“I'm always trying to get better. There's always room for improvement.”

“Things happen for some reason. I don't know what, but I just think about the positives, focus on getting better, and that's it.”

“I fight with a lot of heart.”

“I think Mark Hunt just has that knockout power, and that's pretty much it.”

“My life is calm. Once I get home from practice, I just want to spend time with my family.”

“I didn't have a hero playing in sports that looked like me.”

“While wrestling in college as a junior, it came to a point where wrestling just wasn't enough for me anymore. I love wrestling, but I felt like I was missing something, and so the striking part about MMA, the boxing and kickboxing, was what got me really interested in MMA.”

“I'm not really too big of a sports fan. Everything I watch is MMA, you know, great fights. But other sports, not really too much.”

“The name of the game is improving, and I've done that.”

“Obviously, throwing leg kicks in the first round is not smart, but it's something that I can really utilize in the later rounds to both score points and look to finish the fight.”

“I just look at what's ahead of me. I don't think about, 'For my legacy, I need to do this, this, and this.' I just focus on every fight and how to win that fight.”

“When I train, I train well.”

“Do I think my wrestling is the best? No, I think it's up there around the top.”

“It's my heritage overall, my people. Mexicans are known for being hard-working people, showing a lot of heart. I wanted to show people I am Mexican and I'm proud of it.”

“I feel great being the first Mexican heavyweight UFC champion.”

“Where I grew up, we had enough to get by, and we had a lot of love. That took me a long way.”