It's never too late to be great.
So many kids dream about playing in the NFL. But I was 130 pounds in ninth grade. I looked around and didn't see any 130-pound wide receivers in the pros.
There's no excuse for losing for me.
It's one thing to never accomplish anything. You start from the bottom, you remain at the bottom, and all you know is the bottom. When you start at the bottom and you get to the top, and you feel the success and the notoriety and the recognition from being the champion, and you go back to losing, that's a tough place to be in.
The worst thing for me would be going back to where I was - relative obscurity.
If I do consider fighting, it won't be until after the Olympic games in 2020, and then from there I'll reevaluate, see if it's something that would be a realistic option for me.
It's always been a battle for me between personal goals and wanting to be able to share the success I've had with my family. And I guess as I've gotten older, I've kind of realized, you know, you can do all these cool things, but if you don't have people in your life to share it with, what's the point?
The way the podium is situated in wrestling, the first place spot is the center. So if I'm in a bathroom, I'll look for the first place urinal.
I think every young man's goal is to be a professional athlete, whether it's the NBA, MLB, or the NFL.
Within a match, there's so many things that happen that could ultimately determine the outcome: You reach too much with your right hand, you step forward with your left leg, you get your head out of position.
I have wrestled in almost every tournament in the world. I've won the Olympics, NCAAs, and World Championships, but none of those can truly compare to the feeling I felt when I won my first and only state championship my senior year of high school.
I listen to a lot of TED talks and motivational speakers.
For Americans, of course, it's football, basketball, and baseball. We live for it. In many ways, it sums up who we are. In Iran, it's all about wrestling. The patriotism toward their country comes out in the way they wrestle, so it makes sense why they're the best.
If I wrestle in 2020, I want it to be my own decision and not the IOC's.
John Smith from Oklahoma State was the greatest American wrestler of all time.
I'm so comfortable in my identity as a wrestler that if I never fought, it would never bother me one bit.
As wrestlers, we're not trying to hurt or damage physically our opponent. All we're trying to do is score points and get our hands raised, so I think that's where we differ from the UFC, but I think that also the way in which we could address each other could be cool from a competitive spirit.
I just want one fight. Because, like, for me, it's not about the status, not about the glory. It's not about the money. Like, I just want to throw my hands and see what I'm made of. And I think that wrestlers and fighters have that same fighting spirit.