Yair Rodriguez

Jeremy Stephens is a fight I didn't want to take because he was behind me on the rankings. Not because of his toughness or whatever.

I speak Spanish and English.

I want to be an example for all the people around the world. I want to be that guy. I know it's going to be hard. I know a lot of people aren't going to like it, but I just want to keep working hard.

I want to be the next Muhammad Ali.

Once you're a fighter you can not feel bad over a guy. You have to keep on kicking him, no matter what.

A lot of people from Brazil and Russia and Europe, they follow me; they send me messages and follow me. I feel blessed.

I wake up thinking about it, I eat thinking of it, and I train thinking all my life is around just one thing, and that's to become the best fighter in the world. That's it.

I work hard every day - like, really, really hard.

Everybody has their own battles to deal with.

I've been learning, this is one of the things that I've been learning: If you are living in the past, you're depressed. If you are living in the future, you have anxiety.

If you live in the present, you are happy.

People live in the past too much. They live the past.

I'm the guy who, I never say much, I just act.

When I die, I want my name to stay here just like Muhammad Ali did. I want to be that guy. I want to be the guy who your kids or your friends' kids follow because I don't have any tattoos.

You always have to give the benefit of the doubt to your opponent, how he's feeling.

I give my all to this career and to this life and I've sacrificed a lot of things that a lot of people aren't willing to do.

Max has earned all my respect, since I started fighting, before I got to the UFC. He is one of the best pound-for-pound in history. Who wouldn't like to fight him? That's how I see it.

In an ideal scenario, I would like to face the champion, right? That's the fight everybody wants.

I've been in contact sports since I was 5 years old.

Every time I step into that cage, I show what I'm capable of.

It's better to take it slowly. You learn what you're doing. The mistakes you make, you take it better.

I used to think differently. Before, it was 'Oh, I have to get the title.' That mindset is kind of gone.

You have to prepare yourself for everyone, and I am prepared for anything.

It makes sense to me that the winner between me and Frankie would face the winner of Aldo and Max. That's what I'm looking for, of course.

I try to save myself from as much impact as I can possibly have to my head.

How often have you seen a fighter talking about the next fight and he didn't win the fight he was in? You have to take care of business first and then worry about everything else later.

My feet are swollen, and I'm always on crutches after my fights.

There's a lot of things that need to happen in order for me to get to the title shot.

I'm a different kind of fighter. I can fight whatever, whoever I want.

Training is training, fighting is fighting. It's two different things.

I met BJ once down in Albuquerque, it was before my fight with Andre Fili. I met him there, we did a little bit of shadow boxing, he didn't really know me back then but now I'm going to fight him so this is a pretty big deal for me. I used to watch his fights on YouTube and I used to learn from him.

That's why we are here: to prove ourselves against the best fighters in history, in the world.

At the level I want to be at, you have to be ready for anything.

Max Holloway is a huge name out there and I'm really happy to have the opportunity to fight him.

I think Frankie Edgar has the potential for me to knock him out because the way that he moves and he's short.

I like to fight short guys because my range helps me out a lot.

Everybody thinks I'm fast, but they don't know how fast I am until they fight me. Whenever they fight me, they can never find me.

If I become a champion, if I become the first Mexican UFC champion, I can become bigger because I will be the first one. There are already a lot of Mexican boxers, great boxers. I'm not saying Canelo is not great. He's great. But I think I can become bigger than that because I'll be the first one.

They pay me to fight once I'm up in the cage.

Sometimes you get in there and the adrenaline is going and you fight a certain way and you wind up taking damage you could have avoided.

You know you're going to get hit when you fight and if you don't want to get hit, you shouldn't be in this sport.

People know me as a professional fighter and when you are in the UFC, you are very visible. But I'm not just a fighter. I'm a man and I have a personal life, too. And I don't have to share every detail of my personal life with the public.

The loss against Frankie Edgar was pretty tough on me, of course.

We're out there exposed and vulnerable to the world, but this sport, I'm telling you, man, there's nothing like it.

Everybody loses.

Stylistically, talking about styles, Brian Ortega is a super hard opponent and he's a really explosive guy.

Max had a lot of experience on me and he taught me some things. He showed me that I needed to keep my strategy and stick to my strategy instead of going too wild on things like jumping around too much or doing crazy stuff.

A loss is a good learning experience if you take it that way, but it also isn't a win.

I think Josh Emmett is right there. I have said before that he could fight for the title, I could fight for the title.

Anybody could fight for the title, it's just a matter of timing.