“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.

“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