Ronda Rousey: I need to keep finding ways to challenge myself

 

Ronda Rousey on setting the bar higher and higher for herself on a daily basis:

I don't do this for a living to do things that are easy, I need to keep finding ways to challenge myself.

Vitor Belfort: Don't be a thermometer, be a thermostat

Uriah Hall on learning from defeat and gaining from loss

Uriah Hall is able to take seemingly negative situations and see a creative opportunity in them:

Chris Weidman on the psychology of doubt and faith

Chris Weidman's psychology degree comes in handy for him in MMA. He has a very strong mental game and knows how to mentally get in the right state for peak performance and victory:  

You always have doubts that crawl up into your mind...I think one of the biggest parts of having a winner's mindset is to be able to deal with those doubts. Erase them out of your mind.

Anderson Silva on imitating Muhammad Ali's fighting / boxing / dancing style

Anderson Silva on likening a fight to a dance:

"My style of fighting is very free. I like to fight happy and loose...I like to use Muhammad Ali as a reference. He fought as if he was dancing and that's what I try to do."

Ronda Rousey quote on leaving no option but victory

"The way that I like to fight is I like to paint myself into a corner and so the only way is for me to win."
- Ronda Rousey

Chris Weidman on controlling the things that you can

Urijah Faber quote on making his own destiny

 

Georges St-Pierre: When I want something I become completely obsessed

Georges St-Pierre on obsession and success:

When I want something in life I become completely obsessed to work hard until I obtain what I want. And I believe it's the same thing for everybody in life that have very high goals. They need to be completely obsessed to reach their goal...Same thing in every sport. I'm sure Wayne Gretzky was completely obsessed of working hard and becoming the best hockey player all time. I'm sure Michael Jordan, same thing. I'm sure Tiger Woods, all great guys in every discipline, every field of work is same thing.

Urijah Faber quote: I'm a doer, I don't have time to sit around and enjoy my work.

Demetrious Johnson quote: I'm just a man who works hard, that's it

Michael McDonald Quotes

Great quotes from highly talented UFC bantamweight Michael McDonald.

 

 

Urijah Faber on staying grounded and humble

Urijah Faber notes that MMA teaches humility and that translates into being a grounded person:

"It's easy to stay grounded when you're in a sport that reminds you all the time that you're just a regular dude."

Matt Brown on overcoming heroin drug use

Matt Brown was able to take his extreme personality and alter it in a positive direction:

Back in the younger days when I was addicted to drugs and partying all the time, all I did was take that to the extreme. And now I take something positive and take it to the extreme.

Carlos Condit on motivation and pushing through anything

 

Carlos Condit is a highly motivated, goal-driven, and intense fighter, and you can see that in his performances. He speaks on how he can find motivation no matter what:

"I find motivation any time I need it...No matter how bad I'm hurting I can push through anything."

Rich Franklin's advice to young MMA fighters

Rich Franklin has a great quote about how fighters should have a bit of amnesia when it comes to their losses and wins. Sometimes you can get an inflated sense of self and comfortfrom a win that can make you rest on your laurels, and when you lose you can let that overwhelm you negatively. For Rich, a certain level of forgetfulness is key to success:

I always talk to young fighters about this that lose and stuff...You have to have like a bit of amnesia both on the winning side and the losing side of this thing...On the losing side you need to be able to forget a loss to be able to move on and to be successful in your next fight. But on the winning side you need to be able to forget a win so you don't get stuck in this pattern of like, "I'm unstoppable". So there has to be a level of amnesia for a fighter.

Conor McGregor motivational words for fighters

Conor McGregor on believing in yourself and showing up at the gym:

Keep believing in your ability, believe in your shot, believe in your move, and show up at the gym. It is a recipe for success that cannot be stopped.

Nick "The Tooth" on not taking things so seriously

Nick "The Tooth" Gullo speaks on not losing the fun of life by taking things too seriously:

My approach to life is always just don't take yourself so seriously, and don't take life so seriously. It's not that serious.

Mark Munoz on leadership

 

 

UFC middleweight Mark Munoz on his viewpoint on being a leader. He takes a holistic approach in trying to lead others in every realm of life and do so via setting a great example as a human being:

 

What it means to be a good leader is to lead by example...Your actions speak louder than your words...For me, what it means to be able to lead other people is to be able to impact them in a positive way: mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically.

Georges St-Pierre on being a Samurai

Frank Shamrock on Following the Warrior's Code

 

Frank Shamrock on the code of the warrior:

All my life, following the warrior's code has taken me to places I was afraid to go. But always when I got there I was glad I made the journey

Tim Kennedy on kids learning from training

UFC middleweight Tim Kennedy speaks on the positives learned from mixed martial arts training.

Ronda Rousey: You're training to be the best in the world on your worst day

Ronda Rousey's mother had a great line which she fed to her daughter when she was coming up in Judo:

One of my mom's best lines is...You're not training to be the best in the world, you're training to be the best in the world on your worst day.

Michael McDonald on loving MMA

Renzo Gracie on knowing himself truly and completely

Since competing in MMA makes you learn so much about yourself, Renzo Gracie has used it as a path of self-discovery:

"I will die shitting on my pants like everybody else, but knowing who I was...Knowing for sure and truly who I was."

Chris Weidman on hard work and luck

Chris Weidman on hard work:

I believe that when preparation meets opportunity, I guess that's what you consider luck; so it's just hard work.

Floyd Mayweather on using your talents and skills

Inspiring words from Floyd Mayweather:

Everybody is blessed with a certain talent, you have to know what your talent is...you have to maximize it and push it to the limit.

Floyd Mayweather quotes from the Howard Stern show

One of the most telling things Floyd Mayweather said during this interview was about his bronze medal he won at the Olympics. He says he didn't win the bronze, he received it:

"You only can win a gold...I don't even got it, I don't know who got it...I'm not impressed with it. I was born to be a winner"

He unflinchingly has the mindset of a winner.

 Other quotes from the interview:

"You have to relax...Take your time and go out there and get the job done. Always keep your composure"

"I just got the will to win at life"

"TMT is about being rich at heart"

Conor McGregor: Everything works, every move

Conor McGregor on learning from everyone:

Everything works. There's a time and place for every single move, no matter what it is...That's the approach I take.

Roxanne Modafferi on shooting for the stars

Chris Weidman on confidence and hard work

Chris Weidman on the correlation between hard work and confidence.

Chris Weidman on believing in yourself

11 minutes into this video Chris Weidman talks about self-confidence:

Believing in yourself at this stage of the game 99% of everything.

Mike Tyson on friends and enemies

 

Mike Tyson on friends and enemies:

"Everybody you fight is not your enemy and everybody that helps you is not your friend"

Jon Jones on manifesting dreams with the Law of Attraction

Jon Jones on manifesting dreams in his reality:

I really feel like a walking testimony of like if you set your mind to things, how things can come true for you. I feel like I'm like, like the law of attraction. I feel like I'm living that life wholeheartedly. Everything that I've looked for out of life, it's come to be so far...I'm working hard, I'm not getting lucky, I'm earning things...I feel like a living testament to how you can just put your mind to anything and make it happen. 

Jon Jones on no limits

“The only limitations are the ones we put on ourselves and I just don’t believe in limiting myself”
- Jon Jones

Georges St-Pierre on overcoming problems

Georges St-Pierre comments about his recipe for overcoming obstacles in his book The Way of the Fight.

Ishe Smith on believing in yourself

Floyd Mayweather on giving one hundred percent

Floyd Mayweather on his definition of a winner:

I want the young champions to know, winning is not always getting your hand raised. Winning is going out there giving whatever you do 100%.  As long as you know you gave whatever you did 100% you're considered a winner in my book.

Ronda Rousey on not cutting corners

Ronda Rousey on not cutting any corners to be the greatest:

You want to be the best in the world you can't cut any corners. Why do you think swimmers shave their arm hair off? Because every little thing counts.

Dominick Cruz on the mental game

Dominick Cruz has an incredible work ethic, which has strengthened his mind. But he continues to develop his mental game through learning from great champions such as boxing great Floyd Mayweather.

 

Erik Perez: Nada es imposible en la vida

Nothing is impossible in life.

Nick Newell and Jim Abbott

A great video with two great one-handed athletes in Jim Abbott and Nick Newell. Abbott says: Believe that there's a way.

If you can be optimistic, if you can have that belief, you can do it.

Brendan Schaub Quotes

UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub is fierce competitor in the cage but a very friendly individual outside of it.

Quotes from Chris Beal from TUF 18

Chris Beal from The Ultimate Fighter 18:

- "I was told there was a lot of things I wouldn't be able to accomplish and I wouldn't be able to do, but I'm doing it."

- "People said I wouldn't make it but I just kept fighting, because that's what I do"

- "Focussing on fighting, that saved my life completely"

- "I want to show him (his son) that if you work hard, no matter what, you can do it"

Anthony Pettis Quotes

UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is one of the most creative and dangerous strikers in the UFC's lightweight division. His striking diversity and creativity stems from his athleticism and originally starting out in the martial art of Taekwondo.





My whole philosophy is working smarter and not harder. And making sure I'm using little effort and getting a huge effect. 
— Anthony Pettis


“I'm always adapting, I'm always learning, and I'm always changing.”

—	Anthony Pettis

Want a personalized @ShowtimePettis digital autograph? Tell us how much! Be sure to include @MetroPCS #UFC181 pic.twitter.com/sTF1mq289I
— MetroPCS Inc. (@MetroPCS) December 3, 2014

Rashad Evans on GSP's dedication to his craft

Rashad Evans on Georges St-Pierre's dedication to his art:

GSP was one of my best training partners. I never met an athlete so dedicated to his craft! After every training session he would stay there and drill for another hour.

Interestingly enough the thing that Georges St-Pierre says he's best at more than anything is in fact dedication. He notes in The Way of the Fight:

Do you want to know what I like best about myself? The truth is, I’ve become “great” at maybe only one thing: dedication.

Jason High on focussing on the process

     
During his post fight interview at UFC on Fox Sports 2, Jason High notes that he isn't concerned about the outcome, but just the process involved with leading up to that destination:

I try to focus on the process and the results take care of themselves. 

 

Having an attitude like that allows one to focus on the steps needed to achieve victory, which increases it's probability of occurring. It also makes the journey all the more pleasurable as you living in the moment.

 

 

Kelvin Gastelum on Learning from Chael Sonnen

When Kelvin Gastelum is asked 22 minutes into this clip, what the most useful thing he learned from Chael Sonnen was, he replies:

He tells me that for a fight you can't worry about the outcome, you just have to worry about performing and that's what I'm thinking coming into every thing. I'm not thinking I'm going to win, just thinking about performing and doing what I need to do to get the job done.

Court McGee on overcoming heroin addiction

Court McGee almost lost his life to heroin addiction, but now has turned his life around completely and tries to inspire others who are in the same position he was to do so to. McGee notes in the NY Post:

I was strung out, the heroin addict, the drunk, the liar, the cheat, the thief. That’s who I thought I was. I never thought I was going to amount to nothing...My job now is to carry the message to people who struggle out there. My job allows me to do that and it allows me to be a dad. It allows me to be all these things I never thought I could be.