It's not just about knockouts, son. This is mixed martial arts. It's about finishing people. It's about putting in that time, putting in all five rounds.
K-1 is the sport where I started. This is my first love, and I find K-1 more attractive and more suitable for our Croatian fans than MMA.
I want Dong Hyun Kim. He's a grappler, he's a strong stand-up fighter, and I think that would be a great fight. I think I beat him every and anywhere.
As far as MMA, I want to say there's maybe five guys that do jiu-jitsu that have an actual level of understanding when it comes to boxing.
I see the takedowns; I see the opportunities to take people down or even try to submit them or something like that. But man, I prefer to stay on my feet. That way I'm confident.
If I was mentoring a young fighter, I'd tell him to spend more time on boxing. That doesn't mean I would ignore kickboxing - you still need to learn the defenses - but in stand-up, it's hard to beat good, solid boxing.
If you trained jiu-jitsu his whole life, why would you trade punches on fight night against a striker?
Guys have a lot more to worry about when they're fighting me than they do fighting Khabib. He's just one-dimensional.
Andrey Koreshkov is not well-rounded. He's been taken down and mounted and has his back taken by Lyman Good, which tells me he's a terrible grappler. He isn't well rounded. He's a good striker, but that's it.
Carlos Condit does the best job of being the counterstriking guy that is very elusive.
People want to see real skill level, real Jiu Jitsu, real boxing, put together and mixed up. They want to see mixed martial arts. They don't want to see five minutes of holding. I think there should be points deducted when you do that.
In Bellator, one guy that I would love to fight is Kimbo. And I'm not going to the ground. I want to fight in his area.
