I know I can be the welterweight champion.
— Stephen Thompson
If I do lose, it will just give me a stronger drive to train harder.
I'm a striker.
No disrespect to Matt Brown, he's a great fighter, but I think I got and have what it takes to beat him.
I learned a lot during the Matt Brown fight.
I'm a better, well-rounded fighter than people think.
Michael Bisping, in one of his last fights, he stepped out there too soon. He had a brutal fight with Georges St-Pierre and then real quick jumped in against Kelvin Gastelum and just got put away. If you do that, if you step out there too soon... this is your livelihood.
I think Rory MacDonald is a great striker, I think Jorge Masvidal is an excellent striker.
Of course I've been called everything; Wonder Wonder Woman, Wonder Bra, Wonder Bread.
To be honest with you, Conor McGregor at 170, I think he's just going to be thrown around like a little rag doll.
Ben Askren, he is a very strong wrestler, probably the best in the division, I think. But then again, when you're in the fight game like this, some of the other things you have to improve. It can't just be wrestling all the time. You got to continue to work on your striking, get better at that.
Georges St. Pierre, if he wants to take you down, you're going down.
Crap happens, you know? It happens, especially when you're in this sport long enough.
I've known guys who've got knocked out and they get back in there too soon, next thing you know they get clipped and they're out again.
I was beating Anthony Pettis. I know nine times out of 10 I would have defeated him. It's just that one time you barely get clipped and down you go.
Everyone in the UFC is good. If you're at the lowest end or the highest end, you have a chance to get knocked out and put to sleep.
Magny is a dangerous guy. He's a good fighter.
No matter how much it hurts, you gotta stay focused on what you're there for and your goals, just don't give up.
People always ask me what will happen if I lose, and I never really thought about it until they asked me.
I wouldn't say I'm the best MMA fighter but I'm working on it every day and I'm getting better and better.
I know that pretty much everybody I face is going to wind up wanting to take me down eventually.
I know I can knock Robbie Lawler out.
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.
Nobody wants to see Thompson vs. Woodley 3, and I kind of understood that.
Everybody asks me, 'Hey, what's your most memorable fight?' For me, it's definitely the Matt Brown fight.
I'm a martial artist. That's what I've been doing since I was three years old, and fighting since i was 15 and that's all I know how to do. The money is just a bonus. It's a bonus for me. I think my real job is teaching martial arts, it's what I love to do.
Movement is everything when it comes to the fight game.
I'm not the type of guy to back down from anybody. I think if you want to fight in the octagon you have to have that mentality.
Taekwondo, those are some major kickers right there. That's what they bring. That's all they do is the kicks. They don't have the punching and the ground but it's more of a kicking art than anything.
If I started talking trash right now, people would just tell me to shut up, 'That's not you, Stephen - be quiet!'
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.
All I want to do is what I do best: go out there and put a hand or a foot upside somebody's head.
From what I've seen he keeps his right side forward, he throws his left hand, throws his left leg and likes to throw a few elbows, but to be honest with you, I'm not very impressed by Darren Till - I think Masvidal is a better fighter. I think he brings more to the table than Darren Till.
Whenever I fight, whenever you see me fight, I work a lot off of angles, using my kicks a lot.
There were a few times in previous fights where I was hurt. It's just a matter of not giving up, if you know what I'm saying.
I've had many fights, but this is the biggest stage I've ever fought in. The UFC is the best.
Kamaru Usman is a great champion.
Anybody in the UFC has a chance to knock you out.
We kind of understand at this level of the game when you work your way up to the top there's a possibility you may be facing somebody you've trained with before.
Sometimes people say, 'You've got to go out there and grit your teeth and just throw.' That's never been my style, but I think I need to be a little bit more aggressive instead of counterpunching.
If you see my fights with Jake Ellenberger, Johny Hendricks and Rory MacDonald, I went out there and just had fun.
I believe that God gave us gifts to help serve Him and He gave me the gift. I'm a people person. I'm also an instructor at Upstate Karate, but I've got the gift of fight, man. After every fight, I try to give all the glory to Him. I believe He gave us, like I said, the abilities to do that.
Anybody who fights McGregor is going to have a good payday. He's one of the best guys in the UFC.
Ben Askren, he's a tough boy. Golly, he's a tough boy. That's what wrestling does. When you wrestle your whole life, you got to be a tough dude to wrestle.
Sometimes, you get kickboxers and all they've done is striking and they don't have the wrestling or jiu-jitsu background that I have had since I was young.
Of course, you've got Lyoto Machida. He's definitely a karate guy and he's made a big presence in MMA. I would say look up Lyoto Machida. There are some other karate guys who are phenomenal at what they do at their karate game, the point fighting game, Raymond Daniels, who is an amazing point fighter and very flashy.
You do have those guys that talk a lot. I understand they're doing it for a reason, to hype a fight, but then you get guys who do it and you can tell that they're trying too hard.
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.
From what I've seen of Darren Till, he's very durable. He likes to throw that left hand so he has a chance to knock people out.
You see a lot of fighters who just got into the UFC getting a lot more recognition than the people who have been in there.
