When someone's portraying something they're not to get underneath my skin, I'm just going to funnel that into a great strategy, and I'm going to try to get him out of there quick.
— Tyron Woodley
In the past, I said I didn't want to speak on certain issues because the second I said one thing about race, then 'Tyron's playing the race card.' But if you really think about it, what is the race card? The race card is that the man held me down, I had unfair circumstances, and I wasn't able to be successful because I was held down.
The second I bring up race in the sport, I'm immediately race-baiting. But I can point out clear facts, where no other champion has been treated like me.
No one should ever bring my muscular build up and think it is going to have something to do with my output in the fight.
If you bring in testosterone outside your body, it probably stops producing it because it thinks you're going to get it from the outside.
It can be a grind, training and fighting and waiting for your chance. But when that opportunity presents itself, you have to be ready because you never know if or when you'll get another shot.
If I have a chance to make a larger amount of money in a legacy fight against the No. 1 welterweight in history, it makes sense for me to want that fight. You have a lot of pay-per-view money coming to this company. Why shouldn't the champion partake in a piece of that pie?
USADA tested me, and I came back positive for hard work and beast-like characteristics.
I owe my family first, but I also have others around me that I have to perform for.
I've had friends who have been beaten up by police officers who put phone books in their T-shirts and then beat them up, then drive off.
To be just straight up honest, Conor McGregor is a guy that fought at 145 - ever in his life. I haven't weighed 145 since my sophomore year of high school.
Nick Diaz is in the top five welterweights of all time in my eyes. Georges St-Pierre is the number one welterweight in my eyes.
Everybody is going to have their moment. I recognize that when my time comes, it's going to be nobody else's time. Nobody is going to have my moment, and I will be a superstar.
I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division, maybe the second-highest on the UFC roster.
I've really valued each area of MMA.
I'm gonna fall back, do my thing, but goddamn, I'm going to be a tough dude to deal with.
Legacy is really important to me. It's more important than dollars to me. So with that said, I try to find the fights that would solidify my legacy.
We also have to think as fighters, celebrities - whatever you want to call us - that we have an obligation to point out stuff that's just completely wrong.
Certain athletes show themselves as marketable, and the UFC gets behind them; they help push them. I'm a husband, a father of four, a gym owner, an actor, an analyst, a stuntman, a Christian - every avenue you can take it, I have those layers.
I know when you do things systematically, non-stop, and repetition, that's how you make things happen in your life. It's the same thing in faith.
It's always something; it's never going to be something that's pleasing. People will always find something to say, and once you become comfortable with that, you can walk away and smile.
The only person I'd be interested in boxing would have to be one of the best of the best. It would have to be, like, Andre Ward.
Fighting, especially at this level, is about getting through adversity. You position yourself mentally to go out and take on obstacles that stand in your way. In the Octagon and in life, you face tough situations and have every chance to quit, but the more adversity you push through, the more likely you are to be successful.
Fighting is the only sport where fans don't understand this is our living.
I think a kid from the inner city, if I had to recruit, is the ideal person for MMA. They'd be less likely to be affected by hard work. They'd be less likely to not appreciate something when someone is helping them out, because they probably don't have a ton of stuff.
Some people say things they think you want to hear, and some people say the things they are actually thinking.
I've physically seen profiling. I've seen me walking up the street with my friends, and the police officers get out of their car and bust the hell out of my friends. And they can't do anything about it, and the cop gets back in his car and drives off.
Amanda Nunes - I've been telling people that forever - she could compete with a lot of the male bantamweights in American Top Team.
Goal number one is to be the welterweight champion of the world, and I'm away from my family way too often. This is a sport where we can make cash now.
I'm just trying to get paid; I'm going to be straight up.
I've beaten Jordan Mein. I've beaten Tarec Saffiedine. Some people might have said I beat Stephen Thompson. I beat Robbie Lawler. These are the greatest strikers in our sport, but I'm the only one out of all those guys that outstruck the best strikers, and I still don't get the credit for being the best striker in our division.
I'm the person that's been that young, spunky kid that wanted to beat the top guys.
There's something about somebody who does something special in the UFC that they're allotted certain freedoms and wiggle room around the rules. I'm just not in that category. So if I want to fight Georges St-Pierre or Nick Diaz or Nate Diaz, then it's all the hooplah and all the talk about it.
My real fear with fighting is just not letting it go out there and hang out. I don't fear other guys. I'm just scared I'm not going to go out there and give everything I have. Like I'm only going to give a fraction of the things we trained and worked on.
What is there not to market? I fight like hell. I'm built a certain way, never taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Two men can talk on the phone and maybe not agree on everything but at least respect each other.
God does things on his time. He wanted me to sit down and wanted me to get some other aspects of my life back in order.
Guys in our sport bump their gums quite a bit, and they get you to think they're these huge tough guys... they're these gangsters, that they'll fight anybody, anytime. And then when you get in front of a person like me... the crickets start to come out. They don't really wanna fight.
My strength is my unpredictablity. I can wrestle, I can strike, I can move fast, and I do a good job of covering up. And because of my experience, I'm able to put myself in good positions in the ring. The guys I fight, they have to be ready for anything.
I guess you could say I fell into it. The main goal was to be successful and to make my family proud. Back then, MMA was just getting started, and there didn't seem to be a ton of rules. It seemed pretty brutal, and I was still pretty focused on wrestling. But I decided to give it a shot.
There's some ignorant people in the world, and if I spend time trying to convince people to think like me, I'll be wasting valuable time I could use to be growing my business, perfecting my craft as a fighter, watching film, studying, or just enjoying time with my family. Or just sleeping.
I've always felt like the underdog.
Why wouldn't the police officers be on edge? Why wouldn't they be alert? And why wouldn't people in the community trust police officers? Because they are consistently harassing them, and they have experience with police officers doing awful things.
When you're working on a Marvel movie, their legal department do not play.
I don't feel an obligation to go by the rankings - we all know how those rankings are produced anyway. I want to go out there and fight the money fight.
I'm just going to go out there, pop on my leather gloves, and constantly make connections outside the Octagon, and that will make me bigger in the Octagon.
I think Nick Diaz is a great fighter.
I just prepare and train to be able to stay on top as long as I can and retire on top.
Nobody criticizes The Rock. Nobody criticizes Randy Couture when he goes over and did 'Expendables 3' or anybody who's a crossover.
A lot of people don't understand my reasoning behind wanting to fight big fights and big names. Knocking off these big names in fights really solidifies me as the best welterweight that's ever done it.
