If a football player has a bad game, he's allowed to do that because he plays once or twice a week. With fighting, it's once every few months.
People say sometimes that I'm distracted. I'm not distracted. I'm being smart. I'm capitalizing while the iron is hot. That's why I'm trying to do movies. I do the podcast. I do a radio show. I work on FOX. I have a gym; I have a lot of things going on. That's because when I'm done, I want to be set up.
I've beaten a lot of great fighters, but people say the big ones, I've lost them all. I don't want to go down as a guy who loses his big fights.
Let's be honest: I don't want to walk out to boos. I always want to be cheered, like anyone, and I've been very lucky over the years to have a lot of support. Coming to America, I'm always the away guy, and so people thought their guy had to take me out, and they boo.
I've been on both sides of the boos.
A lot of people get up to the top of the pile, maybe get one No. 1 contender match-up, and if they lose, they drift into obscurity. I lost, and I went back a bit. But I built myself back up. Three times.
I fought Dan Henderson in 2009, and I lost, and that was at UFC 100 - UFC 100 was the biggest pay-per-view the company's ever done. 1.6 million pay-per-view buys, watched all over the world, and of course, I get knocked out cold after talking lots of smack leading up to the fight. So I got my just desserts in that one.
I always support British athletes of all sports, including Tyson Fury. I think he's a great boxer. However, if he's calling out UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez, then quite frankly, he's living in a fantasy world and needs to come back to reality.
'The Ultimate Fighter' has found lots of great talent.
I haven't seen any of the Cung Le movies, but I have seen the Cung Le Q&A that he did in San Jose, and I've got to say that was pretty hard to watch. That was pretty cringeworthy. Listen: stick to kicking; sticking to kicking eggs and setting Guinness World Records, because entertaining a crowd certainly isn't your thing.
In my teenage years, I started kickboxing, then did a little boxing. When the UFC and MMA exploded in the early 2000s in the U.S.A. and Japan, I saw a way to make money and a career.
I just like doing normal things, going to the shops in Manchester, getting a meal with my girlfriend and kids, going to the cinema. I love Las Vegas and there places, but I couldn't live there.
For so many years, people have used the expression 'poster boy of British MMA,' but I've never seen myself as that; I certainly never described myself as that.
I worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer. I did demolition work, was a postman, was a tiler, a plasterer. I even sold double-glazing door-to-door. But I always dreamed of being a world champion, first of all as a boxer.
Omelettes, I'd say, are my secret weapon in terms of diet: I love them, they're nice and easy to make, they're very nutritious, and they're low in carbs.
A long time ago, I had a bird that annoyed me, and the bird had to go. The bird's neck was snapped. I would also snap Conor McGregor's neck in a similar fashion.
Financially, I've done very well doing what I do. I've got plenty of money in the bank. I've got gigs with FOX doing analyst work, media work. The UFC has been very kind to me. Ultimately, however, I want to be world champion. I have to achieve that to validate my entire career.
