“I’ve been training with these little Chechens, and whatever Dagestanis my whole life... You’ll train with these guys and it’s a thousand percent off the gate. They take you down, and there’s a voice in your head that’s almost like, ‘F***ck. This guy doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t quit.' But then the moment you push back and you just keep fighting the good fight, all of a sudden they just start breaking”

– via Jon Bernard Kairouz podcast, giving a raw and controversial breakdown of the "invincibility" myth surrounding Dagestani and Chechen fighters

“I’ve been training with these little Chechens, and whatever Dagestanis my whole life... You’ll train with these guys and it’s a thousand percent off the gate. They take you down, and there’s a voice in your head that’s almost like, ‘F***ck. This guy doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t quit.' But then the moment you push back and you just keep fighting the good fight, all of a sudden they just start breaking”

– via Jon Bernard Kairouz podcast, giving a raw and controversial breakdown of the "invincibility" myth surrounding Dagestani and Chechen fighters

“I’ve been training with these little Chechens, and whatever Dagestanis my whole life... You’ll train with these guys and it’s a thousand percent off the gate. They take you down, and there’s a voice in your head that’s almost like, ‘F***ck. This guy doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t quit.' But then the moment you push back and you just keep fighting the good fight, all of a sudden they just start breaking”

– via Jon Bernard Kairouz podcast, giving a raw and controversial breakdown of the "invincibility" myth surrounding Dagestani and Chechen fighters

“Paddy Pimblett is awesome, Justin Gaethje is awesome, Arman and Ilia seem to have something in terms of not only skills, but between the two that we could build a great fight around”

– via Red Corner MMA acknowledging the star power of the interim title fight while insisting that Ilia Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan is the most significant competitive matchup in the division

“Paddy Pimblett is awesome, Justin Gaethje is awesome, Arman and Ilia seem to have something in terms of not only skills, but between the two that we could build a great fight around”

– via Red Corner MMA acknowledging the star power of the interim title fight while insisting that Ilia Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan is the most significant competitive matchup in the division

“I know he wants a challenge. He wants a money fight, he wants to really get paid. It’s possible, especially after what we’ve seen in the last fight. Aspinall against Ciryl Gane, how effective the jab was and how [Aspinall] can be outboxed but I still think that’s a tough one...That’s a tough ask for the simple fact of he’s going to grab him. ‘Poatan’ has been able to defend the takedown but he has been put down on the ground at 205, those big guys at heavyweight, they will just lift him. They’ll be able to lift him...It’s possible… we gotta figure out what’s going on with the heavyweight division… but it’s possible, all it takes is one punch”

– via The Schmo giving a nuanced breakdown of Alex Pereira's potential move to heavyweight.

“Ilia, I trust in my A to B, it’s what I have to trust in. I trust in my intuition. I trust in my ability to judge distance and time and just be there. This sport is so crazy. Anything can happen... it comes down to not making mistakes against a guy like that... Not eating his right hand. Not walking into his right hand. His left hook, his 2—3 is one of the best combinations I’ve seen in this sport, so it’s a beautiful challenge, and I love how scared I’ll be”

– via an interview with ESPN Deportes providing a deep technical and psychological breakdown of a potential title unification against Ilia Topuria.

“I got to go with Gaethje. I feel like he's the one who enjoys a knockdown, drag out more than the other guy. Not that Paddy Pimblett doesn't love to fight, it's just Gaethje loves to actually get down and throw fist for fist, and he's also got the Division 1 wrestling to kind of negate some of the biggest skillsets of Paddy. Paddy is a very dominant grappler when it comes to submissions and being aggressive with that. I think Gaethje has the tools to keep it where he wants, and I think that's going to give him an edge”

– via Helen Yee Sports breaking down the interim lightweight title fight at UFC 324.

“I think it will be even easier for Petr in a third fight, because he knows what to expect from Merab. He knows how to stop his wrestling and impose his own wrestling. It'll be even more easy. You just have to show up in the same shape, with the same mindset.”

– via Ushatayka, explaining why Petr Yan is the clear favorite for a potential trilogy bout against Merab Dvalishvili.

“I don't think that Yoel's going to beat him because Bo just wrestled and he's young. But boy, Yoel Romero is going to make it hard for him, especially after what I saw the other day. Yoel Romero's wrestling like he still wrestles international. He's good, man. He was always a freak. Now he's like unbelievable”

– via The Daniel Cormier Show, reacting to Yoel Romero's recent "steamrolling" performance and his upcoming title fight against Bo Nickal.

“I don't think that Yoel's going to beat him because Bo just wrestled and he's young. But boy, Yoel Romero is going to make it hard for him, especially after what I saw the other day. Yoel Romero's wrestling like he still wrestles international. He's good, man. He was always a freak. Now he's like unbelievable”

– via The Daniel Cormier Show, reacting to Yoel Romero's recent "steamrolling" performance and his upcoming title fight against Bo Nickal.

“Listen man, this guy just might be the best lightweight in the world, since Islam is gone. He is really good man. He is big, he is strong, he is physical. The champion Ilia Topuria is tremendous... I think they need a fight at some point. Paddy Pimblett is awesome, Justin Gaethje is awesome, [but] Arman and Ilia seem to have something, and not only something in terms of skill, but between the two, we can build a great fight around.”

– via Red Corner MMA, making the case for a fight between Arman Tsarukyan and Ilia Topuria.

“Listen man, this guy just might be the best lightweight in the world, since Islam is gone. He is really good man. He is big, he is strong, he is physical. The champion Ilia Topuria is tremendous... I think they need a fight at some point. Paddy Pimblett is awesome, Justin Gaethje is awesome, [but] Arman and Ilia seem to have something, and not only something in terms of skill, but between the two, we can build a great fight around.”

– via Red Corner MMA, making the case for a fight between Arman Tsarukyan and Ilia Topuria.

“I don't want to sound biased, but i really don't [believe he deserves the title shot]. I don't love Ian Garry but i think he's earned it”

– via Helen Yee Sports, weighing in on the welterweight title picture

“[Khabib] used to ground and pound the mess out of you i can respect that type of use of your grappling, but if you're only willing to hold somebody down because you do not want to fight on the feet, because you're de'd scared that they might knock you out, i'm not a fan of that”

– via Submission Radio, criticizing the latter for using grappling as a safety net to avoid striking exchanges rather than as a means to inflict damage.

“It'll be funny when he gets in there and i'll just start slamming into him, and he'll be like, 'oh wow, he's not concerned about his health and safety at all'.”

– via Main Event TV, breaking down his upcoming fight against Benoit Saint Denis for UFC 325, stating that he intends to immediately pressure Saint Denis and make him realize that Hooker is unconcerned about his own well being in the fight.

“Sometimes khabib says he doesn’t want to fight me in abu dhabi because of too many factors of distraction, i mean abu dhabi, and probably the white house event will be no different. The first ever tournament there, we don’t know what it’s going to be like. We are on the level where everything should be planned in good time. Say my fight in Australia, there were a lot of things we had to take care of during the event. A lot of issues we had to deal with for the first time. That’s why the fight turned out to be so hard. Maybe that’s the reason Khabib said it. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, and he doesn’t want us to be there”

– via Red Corner MMA, stating that Khabib Nurmagomedov does not want him to fight at the White House due to the lack of planning information and potential distractions, drawing parallels to the logistical issues they faced ahead of his first fight in Australia.

“No.1, it would be great to smash the calf to stop the momentum. Body shots super early, on anyone who has pace like Merab... You have to go to the body, really early in the fight. You won't feel the effect of it until you feel the offensive attacks wane when the third, fourth, and fifth rounds come around. You realize, 'Wow, he's not attacking nearly as much as he usually does.' That's the investment in the body shots coming to fruition.”

– via an interview with Mike Bohn, advising Petr Yan to target Dvalishvili's calf and make an early, relentless investment in body shots to slow down Dvalishvili's relentless pace.

“[He] gotta, what we would call 'flatten his tires' by investing in the body super early... Maybe knees to the solar plexus, to the liver, and always just relentlessly invest in body shots... If he does that, and he can score enough of them, we can slow the pace of Merab enough to where we can turn it into a fight.”

– via an interview with Mike Bohn, advising Petr Yan to target Dvalishvili's calf and make an early, relentless investment in body shots to slow down Dvalishvili's relentless pace.

“No.1, it would be great to smash the calf to stop the momentum. Body shots super early, on anyone who has pace like Merab... You have to go to the body, really early in the fight. You won't feel the effect of it until you feel the offensive attacks wane when the third, fourth, and fifth rounds come around. You realize, 'Wow, he's not attacking nearly as much as he usually does.' That's the investment in the body shots coming to fruition.”

– via an interview with Mike Bohn, advising Petr Yan to target Dvalishvili's calf and make an early, relentless investment in body shots to slow down Dvalishvili's relentless pace.