I put myself in a position where I made wrestling an option for me. I don't have to wrestle. I don't have to take another shot for the rest of my life if I don't want to. I have good enough hands, good enough boxing, good enough timing to strike with anybody in our division.
I owe my family first, but I also have others around me that I have to perform for.
Growing up as a kid, in elementary and middle school, I was always getting in trouble. Always getting suspended. I got suspended for 90 days for fighting beginning my freshman year, so I missed Homecoming, and that's when I turned the page. I went on honor roll and had good grades after that. It was the changing point.
I don't think I'll get the credit I deserve, but I didn't get into this game for credit. I got into this game to be the greatest welterweight ever. If I keep knocking them out one by one, I think that will happen.
I gotta be able to beat good guys at any moment. I think that's what I'm taking.
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.
I'm a person who believes that if a team that's producing a champion and producing contenders in that same division, then the coaches should be proud of that and pat themselves on the back because they're really creating a dynasty, so that's the way I take it.
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.
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.
I fight with a game plan, but sometimes you have an audible.
I'm just trying to get paid; I'm going to be straight up.
I used to be in a street fight at least twice a week, so locking me in a cage with somebody, with a set of rules and a referee to jump in if something get ugly, and a time limit, like, it don't scare me.
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.
Two men can talk on the phone and maybe not agree on everything but at least respect each other.
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.
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.
Obviously, Robbie Lawler isn't called ruthless for nothing; he's really earned his keep and has a crazy comeback story, probably the best comeback story we've seen in our sport.
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.
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.
What got me into MMA first was that I was a wrestler, and I was a gangbanger getting into trouble a lot and getting into fights. I grew up in a family of 15 in a four-bedroom house. It was dysfunctional, so that alone made me want to be an MMA fighter. It's really the only sport where you gotta basically depend on yourself.
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.
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?
I think people that came out originally, like 2Pac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg,, and even T.I. and Ludacris, they were original with their vibe, but at the same time, they were classics.
When you're working on a Marvel movie, their legal department do not play.
When you fighting in New York, I feel like it would be disrespectful if I didn't walk out with some legendary East Coast hip-hop.
I've had five submissions in the first round. I have 3, 4, 5 knockouts. I've had decisions. I've had grinding fights.
Let's put the cards on the table. Real is real. If I was a different complexion, I think people and fans would treat me a different way.
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.
What is there not to market? I fight like hell. I'm built a certain way, never taken performance-enhancing drugs.
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.
I'm gonna fall back, do my thing, but goddamn, I'm going to be a tough dude to deal with.
Rampage Jackson came to the UFC with a brain. He came to the UFC with a huge following from being in Asia with Pride. He was a personality before he came to the UFC. You don't see them putting marketing money behind him to blow him up.
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 used to fight every week. Me and my friends used to fight each other, bare knuckle, but then we would be friends that same day. That was our entertainment, though.
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 I'm straight outta shape for a fight, I might need 12 weeks or more to get in shape.
For me, it's just being wiser, finding my opportunities, and really fighting a smart fight.
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 don't want to be the dude that you just think about with a crazy suit, talking crap, fighting in these super fights and driving a Rolls-Royce.
I've always felt like the underdog.
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.
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.
I remember recording over my mom's cassettes and putting on 'Thuggish Ruggish Bone,' and my mom be like, 'What the hell?' Being that I was born in '82, I've been listening to all of the classics throughout my years.
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.
You can't get too excited about your own medicine.
Look at guys like Demetrious Johnson, who's the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Why isn't he on the largest pay scale? Why are there people that aren't even champions making more money?
I don't believe in ring rust. I used to believe in ring rust, but I talked to my buddy Dominic Cruz, who's a bantamweight, and he basically said it's a mindset. What you do in between in your time off determines how you're going to look when you come in there.
I think the fans are human, and they have their own mind. If someone doesn't like a person because of their skin color, it doesn't matter if you fight or you deliver mail; they're going to have that opinion.
Wrestling is second nature: I've been doing it for so long, so if it looks like someone's leg is available, it made sense for my first three fights that I would shoot for legs.
