BEN ASKREN

I've been around the block. I travel a lot to gyms.

Colby Covington is an idiot. He is so stupid.

I fight with good strikers every day.

I don't care if you're an Asian fan or an American fan: I'm happy to perform.

I've got more skills in my pinky finger than half the damn guys in the UFC.

I have nothing against Bellator at all.

My view on wrestling in MMA is changed a lot since I started really doing it.

I speak plainly, I don't beat around the bush, and I'm just genuine.

I don't think the number of followers has anything to do with how good I am fighting. That said, I am good at fighting, and I do have a lot of followers.

If my team and family are happy for me, I'm not going to let what some fans think affect me in any way.

I'm open to a super fight.

I think every promoter's job is to pump their athletes up. Like, you see, Dana White did it all the time with branding people: all of a sudden, they're the best thing since sliced bread, just because that's the promoter's job.

I have a really hard time with people telling me what to do.

I think people realize that I'm one of the best welterweights, whether I'm number one or number four or number five or number six.

Nate Diaz sucks.

A lot of wrestling interviews are boring, plain and simple. They don't say anything you never heard before. Your basic wrestling interview is, you ask me how am I going to do, and I say, 'I'm going to do my best. I'm going to wrestle hard.'

I just like taunting people.

There's more to life than fighting.

I try to wrestle one time a week with good, solid people.

I'll sell a million pay-per-views if you're smart enough to market me the right way.

I'm dominant positionally, and my hands got power.

There are conferences every year where all the major coaches get together, and they talk about the issues in wrestling, what's going to happen. There's a major governing body, U.S.A. Wrestling, which oversees a lot of the issues. The organization is there in wrestling to make a very well-balanced, organized system.

If I'm coaching at my academy, and we were drilling the front headlock, we don't just say, 'OK, now go five-minute goes,' because how many tries are they gonna get at going at the front headlock position?

You need to take care of yourself first, and you can't think of others quite as much if you want to be a successful competitor.

Dana White ain't going to take care of you the second after you can't make him a whole bunch of money.