Aspen Ladd

It's like you fight so hard to get to the UFC but then you have to fight even harder to stay there. You fight so hard to get the but it's even harder to maintain the belt. There is no end game. It's a journey and you've got to be ready for all of it.

I like to compete. I like that feeling that you're never bored.

There's always stuff to learn, and it's always changing.

Everybody in the UFC would be a weight class up.

We all have life experiences, right? But without knowing what's happened to another person, you can't just apply, like, your triggers and what's wrong with you to them.

It would be amazing if we were just basically judged on the merits of what we do, but we're not. That's not part of it.

It's an entertainment sport. You've got to be good, and you've got to promote yourself in a certain way - it is what it is.

They have the weight class, but honestly, if you're a 145er in the UFC, I would recommend if you can go down, do it.

I clearly cannot make that weight at 135, at least not consistently without dying.

It's very, very hard to bet against Nunes, it really is.

I'm always about what's in front of me, not what's five steps ahead already.

You've got to find a mental separation sometimes, where you can be sad but still handle your business.

I get excited equally for every single fight.

You get caught up in the other person, they were this, they were that, and you lose sight of what you're good at and how you got to this point. You can't really get too caught up in the other person.

Germaine's a great competitor.

I've had people ask me, 'Do you remember doing this in a fight?' No, I really don't. I see things after.

Every time I'm preparing for a fight, it's like the end of the world but every fight and every performance itself is not worth going into a deep dark depression over or get all hopped up on yourself.

You handle your business and then re-evaluate after.

Even current champions, there might be somebody who's not even ranked yet and their skill set will impact them in a way that will affect that champion negatively. It's not the rankings. It's not this matchup versus this matchup. It's skill set versus skill set and that's going to give that person a problem.

I feel like I'm getting better every fight, because I never leave the gym.

I'm always training regardless of opponent, regardless if I have a fight.

We all want to win, we all want to go in and beat the opponent.

I go in there and I fight another human being for a living. I do all of this work leading up to it. You realize when you look back what you can deal with and what you're capable of.

There's nothing more anxious than that moment right before you touch gloves and go. But then it starts and, I don't know, for me, I feel like I kind of black out. Everything happens so fast and you're just moving and reacting, the training kicks in. You're making decisions, but there's no time to think.

Referees have a tough job.