When it comes to who are the best fans of mixed martial arts in the world, a lot of fighters will point to Japan. The reason is because of the immense respect that Japanese fans have for fighters, to the point where they are completely silent during competition.
When you do what you love you have a way of overcoming obstacles and going millions of miles further than you would without that passion for your craft. Sometimes during tough periods you can forget why you got into what you were doing in the first place, but it came from a state of doing what you love to do.
One of the things that MMA fighters need to do to stay relevant is evolve. The mantra for any mixed martial artist should be Evolve or Die, because without evolution the game will just pass you by. But with constant evolution there's no limit to where you can go.