“I want to be prepared for him...The grappling aspect. He's a really good grappler. I just see one detail that he doesn't do with excellence: he takes guys down but he doesn't know how to submit them. We saw him take some down, and he didn't submit them. He has that kind of long-distance striking, which complicates even the best guy in the division. He complicates it with his pace. And I want to be ready in that sense?the grappling part. Being able to defend his takedowns and take him down myself. I want to train my guillotines more. I know he has a powerful guillotine- reacted to Merab's callout after UFC RIO win.”

“I just heard about Poatan [age] now, but I've always looked up to Glover Teixeira. A guy who became champion at... 42. That motivates me even more. I know I can do it. I can fight for and win the belt up until I'm 40.”

“I just heard about Poatan [age] now, but I've always looked up to Glover Teixeira. A guy who became champion at... 42. That motivates me even more. I know I can do it. I can fight for and win the belt up until I'm 40.”

“We can see he’s almost tied with the best in terms of title defenses in the organization. I give him that credit, yes. And for me, it would be a pleasure to fight him.He’s been doing an excellent job. … If I go in there and deliver a great performance, that could get me a title shot. That’s what I’m after-via mmafighting”