Chris Weidman

“I think there's times where I'm introverted, and there's times where I'm extroverted.”

“I wanna get myself in such good shape that no matter how much I push myself in a fight, I know that the other guy is gonna be a little bit more tired.”

“I grew up in a rough neighborhood, so I fought a lot. Even when I was wrestling, if I lost a match, I always thought, That guy would never beat me in a fight.”

“I remember watching Anderson Silva fight Dan Henderson at UFC 82. I had never really watched MMA, but I looked up to Dan Henderson. He was a wrestler, like me, but also a tough, powerful mixed martial artist.”

“I've never had anything. I just wanted to one day live comfortable. Like, be able to go out to lunch with my friends without being like, crap, I don't know if I can afford this bill right now. I shouldn't be doing this. That's all I really wanted.”

“I expect the worst of every situation, so if it does happen I'm prepared for it.”

“For me to be able fight in my home state of New York would be a dream come true.”

“When I've trained as hard as I possibly can through training camp and I come to the end, where my body is worn out and I'm tired, I know I'm ready to peak.”

“Getting hit is part of the job. You don't want the first time you're getting punched to be in the fight because there's a lot of shock and awe and you won't react well. I like to get hit in sparring. I don't want to get concussed, or I don't want to be getting knocked out, but I want some shock treatment to prepare me for the fight.”

“I really like Cain Velasquez. I like his pace that he puts on; he is mentally and physically breaking everybody he goes with. He's just tenacious and relentless. I like Anderson Silva, too. I like his style. He's very relaxed.”

“People forget, I was 9-0, I was fighting Anderson Silva. I was fighting the best guys this sport has ever seen, one after the other, with no experience.”

“Rankings don't mean much to me but I'm working towards being the pound-for-pound best in everyone's mind.”

“People gotta realize as a fighter you want to become a champion because you get paid way more money. So the belt is very intriguing for that reason.”

“I was living out on Long Island in Baldwin, New York when Hurricane Sandy hit. With the storm surge, the whole first floor of our house was under about three feet of water. We lost a lot of valuable stuff - sentimental stuff like pictures and Christmas ornaments. Nobody expected flooding that bad.”

“The thing about mixed martial arts is you have to know every single martial art in the world or you're at a disadvantage. So, there's so much to learn. I have to know wrestling. I have to know kick boxing. I have to know boxing. I have to know karate.”

“Money, autographs, I had no desire to even do that. I fell in love with fighting and those types of things became attached to it.”

“Training is my life. It's all I've known since I was in second grade, when I started wrestling.”