Yair Rodriguez

“In the Frankie Edgar fight, my eye was completely closed. I couldn't see nothing, but I was willing to keep on going. Not everybody's the same.”

“A lot of people from Brazil and Russia and Europe, they follow me; they send me messages and follow me. I feel blessed.”

“I know I'm still a rising star for the sport or whatever, but I know I have done a lot already.”

“I wake up thinking about it, I eat thinking of it, and I train thinking all my life is around just one thing, and that's to become the best fighter in the world. That's it.”

“A loss doesn't mean anything. It just means that you're going to learn from it, and it won't happen to you ever again.”

“Max has earned all my respect, since I started fighting, before I got to the UFC. He is one of the best pound-for-pound in history. Who wouldn't like to fight him? That's how I see it.”

“I'm fine with my family before the fight. I tell everybody that I love them.”

“Max had a lot of experience on me and he taught me some things. He showed me that I needed to keep my strategy and stick to my strategy instead of going too wild on things like jumping around too much or doing crazy stuff.”

“Max Holloway is a huge name out there and I'm really happy to have the opportunity to fight him.”

“Of course, you always want more because you think you deserve more. It's just the way that it is. Nobody is happy with whatever they have.”

“People live in the past too much. They live the past.”

“I think during the process of growing and becoming a star, you just stop trusting a lot of people.”

“I'm the guy who, I never say much, I just act.”

“I've been doing martial arts since I was five, so for me competition is something that's very common.”

“I work hard every day - like, really, really hard.”

“There is some things that you'll never heal.”

“I want to learn and fix all the holes in my game, the way I always fix them.”

“For me, personally, it means a lot beating a legend like B.J. Penn.”

“A loss is a good learning experience if you take it that way, but it also isn't a win.”

“Many things that I do during my fights I don't really do here in my trainings because I can hurt my partners or myself.”