Joseph Benavidez

“My three most impressive fights have been against black belts in jiu-jitsu.”

“I love crying. I pick movies to go see with the intention of crying.”

“I wanted to fight Cejudo only because it meant I was gonna win the title. It wasn't about fighting a person.”

“I think I could have asked for a title shot after I beat Ian McCall.”

“Being the first flyweight champion would be history. I'd be immortal. No matter what I do, that's always there.”

“I just need to remember even if I don't get the title, I have an awesome life and an awesome family and friends.”

“I'm never not motivated to train.”

“People do that all the time - they switch teams, switch coaches, switch camps.”

“When you're fighting the best, best guys in the world, there's no glaring weaknesses. There's X-factors and there's small openings that you have to prepare for better and that's really it.”

“Persevering is a fight. That's what a fight is. You face something, you persevere through it, you meet it head on.”

“Our first job is to go out there and fight - not to do backflips or have a mustache.”

“I'm not going to bag on people and make funny jokes about my opponent. I just respect every opponent I go in against.”

“I believe in my skill 100 percent, that I can go out there and beat Demetrious Johnson and give him the best fight there is.”

“My goal is to be UFC champion, and my eyes are on that prize.”

“I'm just looking for matches that make sense.”

“You just gotta stay positive and take every day as a chance to improve and every practice. And every week you're not having a fight, there's a chance to improve.”

“This sport is crazy, it moves along and we all have a short memory. No one realizes when fighters are out. They just remember their last fight and how they look now.”

“This is a lonely sport, the more family, the more laughs, and the more fun you can have, the better. At the end of the day, though, it's one man's journey to try and be the best in the world.”

“That's what Dominick Cruz does. He wins decisions and he has that down to a science. He's great at it.”

“I was sitting in the nosebleeds eating hot dogs and watching Georges St. Pierre win the world title from Matt Hughes. Like never in my wildest dreams if someone would have tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Hey, seven years from now you're going to be down there doing the same thing' would I have believed them.”