DOMINICK CRUZ

I fight to drive my percentages through the roof for winning and lower my percentage by taking the least amount of damage and least amount of hits.

Regardless of how tough you think you are, regardless of how good you think your chin is, we're all only one connected punch away from being hurt, and you've just got to hope your chin holds up and your body holds up.

I never criticized one person in any way that I did not believe was true. How am I a mean guy if I'm telling the truth? Because nobody wants to hear the truth.

Even when I was hurt with triple ACL reconstructive surgeries, there was a target on my back. I had to come back and fight through it.

I didn't deserve to get my title stripped after three ACL reconstructions. I didn't deserve to be out for four years. But it happened to me, and so I definitely learned over the years that you don't deserve anything. Nothing you have is yours. Everything is up for grabs in this world.

Everybody's got a puncher's chance in this game. I mean every single person on Earth. But my whole focus, my whole style, my whole dynamic is built around taking that power away from you. So where is the logic in why you're different from anybody else? There is no logic in it.

If you want to be that world champion, you have to be willing to beat anybody on this planet - no strings attached.

I'm still the best bantamweight in the world in my mind, yes. If I had any doubt that I was the best in the world then I shouldn't be competing. If you don't think you're going to be the best, what's the point?

I think we are here to challenge ourselves and make ourselves better people and not just sit around in the world simply floating through life. You should be trying to do something great and making yourself better. You should be trying to evolve. That's what I'm trying to do, and that is very important to me.

Preparation is a mentality... With wrestling being my background, I've always learned to overwork, overwork. Work, work, work, work. It's not always the talented that wins, but it's the one who puts in the most preparation and thought into things.

There's more to the sport than just fighting, and you either understand that, or you don't. And if you don't, then I promise you the guys that are worth money don't want to fight you, because you don't get it.

When I'm done fighting, I want to look to get some sort of driving career somewhere. My goal is to eventually get into the Mint 400 and do the trophy truck stuff.

Once I dedicated my time to mixed martial arts, I became careful about what I let into my mind. I made a goal of being the best on Earth in mixed martial arts and fighting. I wanted to build my mind into something good, not just of the world. I wanted to be different.

This is a game where if you don't have people who dislike you, then you don't know what it is to be liked. I've had a lot of dislike thrown at me in this game, but I've also had a lot of love.

I didn't grow up with a lot of money, so my mom didn't have random money to buy me a car, and I didn't have money to have a car unless I worked, so I didn't get a car until I got my first job at 18.

I am the best in the world, and all these guys are fighting me to gain credit.

My goal is to become the best person I can, and in the process of doing so, I believe, I can help others. I'm also trying to make history in mixed martial arts and become known as the best 135-pound fighter to ever compete.

I feel that I fell somewhat under that category where I was using fighting to kind of run from my own self to an extent, to kind of numb the things that I thought about myself. When I had fighting taken away, I was forced to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'What are you without fighting?'

At five years old, I became the man of the house. When he left, my dad let me know that. It put a certain drive in me that I can't explain.

I'm ready to live in the present - not the past and not in the future - because in the present is where there's peace.

Loss is part of life. If you don't have loss, you don't grow.

My mom was always very, very careful with my mind: what I saw and didn't see.

For a long time, I felt like my identity was to fight. My identity was to be a world champion. That almost defined me.

I've never not owned a stick shift. There's something about manual transmissions that I really appreciate and enjoy. And besides that, I like driving; I enjoy driving.

I kill hype for a living.