From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Martial arts is my greatest passion in life, and it has given me everything: my values, my family, my business, and my true calling. It has given me a warrior's spirit to conquer adversities in life.
To be a great fighter you obviously have to have talent, but what really matters is dedication and discipline. I've seen so many guys with talent where I've thought, 'this guy's going to be a world champion...' but they've not had the dedication. You can't just succeed with talent.
God gave me a talent and I have worked extremely hard to fulfil this talent.
We have the ability to push much further than we think is possible, but the brain wants us to rest to allow the body to recover. With practice and training we can overcome almost any discomfort.
Just take a look for example, at NFL players with pink socks, bringing their babies on the field. You would never have seen that just 10 years ago. The culture is changing as we speak.
Sports are the most valuable content and intellectual property in the world. MMA is the fastest growing sport and has the best business model in sports.
With 650 million global fans, MMA has the third biggest worldwide fanbase (after soccer and basketball). However, those MMA fans are very under-served and very under-monetized.
27 years ago, when I started in UFC, I knew it was going to be one of the biggest things in sports- honestly. It was always a spectacle, but needed refining to become a mainstream, extreme sport. All the excitement we used to get from watching those movies we can now watch in reality. The men and women who come into the octagon are also really fascinating, have incredible stories, incredible personalities- UFC really captures you… it captures hearts and minds.
I earn my living from coaching people how to fight… it may come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that until I was in my early twenties, I was terrified of fighting. I hated arguing, shouting, violence – all forms of conflict, basically. That's not unusual, of course, but to be honest, I was a bit of a wimp – or, as some of the kids in school liked to tell me, a pussy.
I knew I could still fight, and some of the people close to me said, 'not with one eye you can't' so I continued anyway... I lied, I cheated and scammed the system... I did whatever I could. It was highly stressful, but I believed in myself.
There's thousands of people out there- men and women- probably waiting for me to drop dead so they can take my position, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I've done the show with a blown-out back, with one leg, coming off laryngitis, coming off or having a 103 degree fever.
My aspiration has always been to fully embrace life's offerings. Success isn't about the endpoint; it's about the journey – the growth from where I began and the rich stories gathered along the way.