"She just has this focus, not just in a fight or in training, but in her everyday life. This is a woman who doesn’t party. All she does is wake up every morning and say, “How can I be better than I was yesterday?” That’s literally how she lives her life."
"Achieving greatness is a long and arduous battle that I fight every day. Fighting is how I succeed. I don’t just mean inside a 750-square-foot cage or within the confines of a 64-square-meter mat. Life is a fight from the minute you take your first breath to the moment you exhale your last. You have to fight the people who say it can never be done. You have to fight the institutions that put up the glass ceilings that must be shattered. You have to fight your body when it tells you it is tired. You have to fight your mind when doubt begins to creep in. You have to fight systems that are put in place to disrupt you and obstacles that are put in place to discourage you. You have to fight because you can’t count on anyone else fighting for you. And you have to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. To get anything of real value, you have to fight for it.
I learned how to fight and how to win. Whatever your obstacles, whoever or whatever your adversary, there is a way to victory.
Here is mine."
"Don’t focus on what you can’t do. Focus on what you can." "No drug or amount of money or favoritism can ever give you belief in yourself." "Athletes who dope don’t believe in themselves."
“At some point, you’ll have to move on,” my mom told me. “That’s a mistake people make. They get comfortable and stay at the same place a long time. But after a while, people run out of what they can teach you. Eventually, you’ll know ninety percent of what a coach can teach you. When that happens, you’re best served going somewhere else. The new coach might not be any better than the one you have, but will be able to teach you something you don’t already know. That’s what it takes to improve. You’ve always got to be looking ahead to that next step.”
"Everyone wants to win. But to truly succeed—whether it is at a sport or at your job or in your life—you have to be willing to do the hard work, overcome the challenges, and make the sacrifices it takes to be the best at what you do."
"I surpassed everyone’s expectations, but fell short of my own. People had expected me to take part, but I had expected to take over."
"If you can’t dream big, ridiculous dreams, what’s the point in dreaming at all?"
"Everything in the world is information. The information you choose to acknowledge and the information you choose to ignore is up to you. You can let outside factors beyond your control throw off your focus. You can let aching muscles hold you back. You can let silence make you feel uncomfortable. By choosing to focus only on the information that is necessary, you can tune out every distraction, and achieve far more."
"People are always looking for the secret to success. There isn’t a secret. Success is the result of hard work, busting your *** every day for years on end without cutting corners or taking shortcuts. It was Michelangelo who said, “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”"
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Winning is a habit, and so is losing
"It is not about just winning the round. It is not just about winning the fight. It is about winning every single second of your life."
"For me, it was never about money. I knew if I followed my passion and did it better than anyone the world had ever seen, the money would come."
"I’ve grown to embrace delayed gratification so much that I even appreciate going through the most challenging parts. I collapse in bed every night, proud of the work I’ve done and savoring the hours of rest I’ve earned."
