“He tried to scare me. No one can scare me. I automatically wanted to kick his a**. Now I want to make him so tired and cut his whole face, don't finish him too early. I want to get his life, hard damage”

– via ESPN MMA, explaining his headbutt of Dan Hooker during the UFC Qatar faceoffs and detailing his violent intentions for the fight

“If you ask me, of course I would love to fight for the second belt. It’s no secret, the guy who’s got the belt at 205 pounds now is a very good matchup for me, except for [if] I should get reckless standing with him. They say he has a lot of power, but I’ve never been edged out in that area. He used to fight at 185, too, and then moved up to 205. So I would like to fight at light heavyweight”

– via Badaev Podcast

“If JDM [Della Maddalena] defends that title against Islam, who better to say OK, let's solidify him as the new generation of champion by taking on the biggest name, the former pound”

– for-pound in the division, of course, me.Of course, if Islam wins, pound-for-pound vs. pound-for-pound fighting, I mean, I'm not really worried here. I've done my job to let them know because they wanted to see, 'Hey, are you still that guy, can you still hang with these guys, can you still do your thing,' and I've done that. I went in there and showed them that. So, I'm not worried.

“If JDM [Della Maddalena] defends that title against Islam, who better to say OK, let's solidify him as the new generation of champion by taking on the biggest name, the former pound”

– for-pound in the division, of course, me.Of course, if Islam wins, pound-for-pound vs. pound-for-pound fighting, I mean, I'm not really worried here. I've done my job to let them know because they wanted to see, 'Hey, are you still that guy, can you still hang with these guys, can you still do your thing,' and I've done that. I went in there and showed them that. So, I'm not worried.