I'm a champion, and I believe that if you're a champion, you can't be afraid to go out there and test yourself against the greatest challenges.
— Jon Jones
I've really tried everything in my power to get my life together.
I genuinely wanted to be an inspiration to other people and inspire people and be a role model.
You have to turn the lemons life gives you into lemonade, and you have to take time to sit back and enjoy it.
I don't believe a champion is the biggest, baddest, meanest dude in the world. I think the champion is like a warrior; it's like the head knight or lead samurai: humble men of integrity, respect, and honor that treat people kindly.
I don't enjoy hitting people; I enjoy outsmarting them.
You've got to give your past attention, but you've got to forgive yourself, acknowledge what you did wrong, and be a man, taking responsibility. You can't not fly anymore because of the things you've been through. You've got to believe in a brighter future, that better version of yourself.
I'm very aware of my image and the perception of me.
As long as I'm taking care of my family and breaking records and continuing to excel and continuing to find new endorsements - everything's working.
I put pressure on myself and feel pressure from my fans to not only win but to look great doing it.
I'm not scared of anything.
My opinion, football is the most dangerous sport there is. After that, I'll give it to probably boxing.
I would study the best, the most flashy, the guys that had that flair, the guys that had that wow. I'd study those fighters, and I made up my mind that I'd be all of those at once.
I would love to fight Brock Lesnar. He's a massive dude.
A rough beginning doesn't have to mean there is a rough end.
It was really tough being in jail. It doesn't get much lower. You're in a filthy room. The food is terrible, and you're surrounded by people who have done all types of crazy crimes. You have nothing that belongs to you, not even your own underwear. It's just terrible.
Growing up, I was poor. In college, I was poor. I never had anything.
I want to take this time to thank Daniel Cormier for being my biggest rival and motivator. He has absolutely no reason to hang his head. He has been a model champion, a model husband, a model father, a teammate, a leader, and I aspire to be a lot more like that man, because he's an amazing human being.
I've convinced myself I'm something special. When you do that, man, you're dangerous, especially when you have the athleticism and work ethic to back it up.
The higher the risk, the higher the reward.
Call it weakness if you will, but even the toughest individuals need assistance getting back on track.
When I fight someone who's not a good person, I want to beat him.
A champion without his belt is like a knight without his sword. I've got to have it.
I've come to expect more out of myself - as a citizen, as a man, as an athlete - to reach a better place, a place I've never been.
Daniel Cormier has been a model champion. He will be a champion for the rest of his life.
Being labeled as someone who would cheat hurts more than anything else I've ever been through in my career.
I feel like a lot of my fans hold high expectations of me when it comes to inside the Octagon - not so much outside of the Octagon - but I feel like most of my performances are pretty dominant, so I don't feel like I have the luxury to not perform in an extremely impressive fashion.
In a fight, you got to know that there's a strong chance you're going to get hurt. But at the same time, you know, most of the injuries you sustain in fighting are not career-ending injuries.
In my mind, I've never lost a fight.
Whenever I talk about Christ out loud, or I tweet a verse or say something in reference about Christ, a lot of people lash out and aren't very excited to hear about my love for Christ.
There's never been a southpaw fighter to make it five rounds with me. These are championship fights, and most of them can't even make it out of the normal rounds. Fought Chael Sonnen, TKOed him in round one. Fought Vitor Belfort. He made it to round four when I ended up submitting him.
I will get out there and train harder than anyone, five times a day sometimes. You have to be a special person to do that - like, special forces, military maybe.
I got in the limelight at a young age. At age 19, people were already comparing me to Anderson Silva.
College, for me, was more about wrestling than actually going to classes.
I'm definitely very excited to see Cormier fight Brock Lesnar. I think Daniel Cormier wins the fight. He's just too fast. I feel like, when I fought him, he was quicker than me with certain combinations. I can only imagine he's going to be a lot quicker than Brock Lesnar.
I'm here to fight; I'm not here to protect whether you think I'm a good person or not. I've given up on that.
The struggles don't define you. It's how you handle them that determines who you are.
Conor McGregor has been a tremendous inspiration to me.
I have tons of pictures of myself as a kid with my medals, and they were never gold medals.
Life is supposed to be about love and good times, and so I've forgiven myself after paying the consequences of my bad decisions, and I'm ready to move forward and allow my life to be a light to others that it's never over, even for a person like me, who has lost a tremendous amount of respect among my peers, my fans, my friends and family.
When you say, 'When you're wrong, you're wrong,' I would 100 percent agree. I've always handled my punishments head on.
Muhammad Ali was hated, and then he was loved at the very end. Floyd Mayweather was hated, and a lot of people are really coming around on him. So, I'm just trying to stay positive and try not to offend too many people along the way and hope for the best end result.
A lot of coaches in MMA focus on MMA wrestling. My coach, his high school team is ranked 10th in the nation. Izzy Martinez is very connected to the wrestling community.
I often get people that come up to me with the UFC 151 poster with me and Dan on it and ask me to sign it.
I am an athlete in every sense of the word. Athlete, martial artist.
The first time I crawled into the octagon, I just felt like an animal, you know? Like a creature, like I wasn't quite human.
It's not my business what other people think of me.
Just staying healthy, that is true wealth and true happiness.
Even though I have bad qualities in my personal life, as an athlete, I can turn it on.
I was never popular. I always kind of wanted to be accepted with the rich kids, with the cool kids, and I never had that.
