“Am I expecting any surprises? No. That's the way he's going to fight, and if he tries anything different, it will be a terrible night. But he did what he had to do to win that belt, and we can't hate him for that. It's my responsibility to go out there, fix that, stop him from doing it again, and make him fight my fight”

– via Fight Forecast, analyzing his path back to the gold following his loss to Khamzat Chimaev

“He made sure he stayed out of danger and he fought that fight, and he almost neutralized me in making it a fight... Not the kind of fight that I would have wanted with all the hype. It wasn’t a very fun fight to watch for anyone. I got bored in the fight, and I was in there, to be honest [laughs]”

– via Fight Forecast, reflecting on his Middleweight title loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319.

“Imavov is getting the title shot. I think that's the only thing that really makes sense now... I think it's going to be an interesting fight, I think Khamzat wins that fight, for sure. The whole division has been mixed up... Right now, you don’t have anybody who’s consistently winning. That’s the problem. How do you pick a contender if you have guys that fight two great fights and one terrible one? The consistency isn’t there”

– via Fight Forecast predicting that Khamzat Chimaev will surely defeat Nassourdine Imavov.

“Khamzat, there's no way he beats Pereira. I think Pereira right now is one of the greatest to ever do it in this sport or in any combat sport. He's a big guy. Even now at light heavyweight, he looked so big against Ankalaev, it was crazy. That's all hype. I don't think there's any realistic chance that ever happens.”