Stephen Thompson

“Nobody wants to see Thompson vs. Woodley 3, and I kind of understood that.”

“The average MMA guys have a boxer's stance which makes it easier for a wrestler when they try and take you down. I tend to stand sideways and that gives them only one leg to shoot for, it tends to make it more difficult to try and take me down.”

“I try my best not to get hit. I don't like getting hit.”

“You gotta be ready in this game. Like when Michael Bisping knocked out Luke Rockhold. I thought... everybody thought that Luke Rockhold would go out there and just smoke him and then Luke Rockhold got clipped.”

“Conor has taken the UFC to a whole new level. It's his whole demeanor that appeals to me. He's a fighter, he's a Viking, and on top of that, he's got the gift of gab.”

“It's difficult when you step out there with somebody like me and my offense.”

“Everybody asks me, 'Hey, what's your most memorable fight?' For me, it's definitely the Matt Brown fight.”

“During the fight, if you feel something, you know it's pretty bad, because normally you don't feel anything. You get punched and elbowed in the face, you don't feel it until after the fight.”

“To be honest with you, Conor McGregor at 170, I think he's just going to be thrown around like a little rag doll.”

“To be honest, any one of those guys that I've stepped in the Octagon with - Darren Till, Anthony Pettis, Tyron Woodley - I would love to step back in the Octagon with those guys.”

“I've never really had any beef with anybody yet, so I think that's a good thing.”

“You never know what the UFC's going to bring.”

“I've been called all kinds of stuff, it's part of the game. You take it personal, then you're in trouble. It will affect you, your training. It comes with the territory.”

“I'm definitely going to work on some techniques that hopefully will throw my opponents off and really allow me to open up whenever I'm out there fighting.”

“After my last fight with Woodley, I ended up hurting my knee so I was out for almost six months.”

“People always ask me what will happen if I lose, and I never really thought about it until they asked me.”

“Of course I've been called everything; Wonder Wonder Woman, Wonder Bra, Wonder Bread.”

“Elvis was a seventh-degree black belt in karate. My dad knew that he couldn't dance like Elvis or sing like him, but he thought maybe he could try karate, and he fell in love with it.”

“I believed I could knock out Rory MacDonald, Johny Hendricks and Jake Ellenberger, and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, but I know I can knock these guys out.”

“Me coming from a karate and kickboxing background, Anderson Silva was like my idol, and so was Machida, especially with his karate background.”