Quotes from Tyron Woodley

I gotta be able to beat good guys at any moment. I think that's what I'm taking.

Man, I fought since pre-K. I was small for my grade, but I was tough.

I love playing Rick Ross' 'Port of Miami' album. Jeezy's 'Thug Motivation 101' is a classic in my opinion, and I still listen to that album to this day. I'm a big fan of OutKast, so pretty much any album they put out is great in my opinion, but I find myself listening to 'Aquemini' a lot. Anything Kendrick Lamar does is great.

I remember recording over my mom's cassettes and putting on 'Thuggish Ruggish Bone,' and my mom be like, 'What the hell?' Being that I was born in '82, I've been listening to all of the classics throughout my years.

I have the highest takedown defense in the entire welterweight division, maybe the second-highest on the UFC roster.

If you are the best in the world, and you believe you should be fighting for a title, I think it is important to get those things out. Because a closed mouth doesn't get fed.

There's a lot of guys in my weight class that are talking - they're chirping. Everybody wants the title. Everybody wants to fight me; everybody thinks they can beat me. People are talking because they think I can't fight.

If a guy isn't in a position to fight for a world title, or if he's not in a place where I can intercept his road to the title, don't offer him to me. I'm not in this to just fight guys for the sake of fighting. I'm not in this to make friends with the people who work in the organization.

When you fighting in New York, I feel like it would be disrespectful if I didn't walk out with some legendary East Coast hip-hop.

For me, in general, I've been blessed to have hospitality from several different camps I've been able to train at and get an approval by the American Top Team guys to go anywhere.

I didn't really get into the sport for fame. I didn't get into it to be this infamous guy that everybody worships. I got into this sport to make a difference.

I think a kid from the inner city, if I had to recruit, is the ideal person for MMA. They'd be less likely to be affected by hard work. They'd be less likely to not appreciate something when someone is helping them out, because they probably don't have a ton of stuff.

I'm actually one of the sharper tools in the box that haven't been in the streets like that, but I have family members, close loved ones, that that's all they know.

I think the elements to shock the world is either the ability to wrestle and grind somebody out or the ability to knock someone out.

My strength is my unpredictablity. I can wrestle, I can strike, I can move fast, and I do a good job of covering up. And because of my experience, I'm able to put myself in good positions in the ring. The guys I fight, they have to be ready for anything.

What got me into MMA first was that I was a wrestler, and I was a gangbanger getting into trouble a lot and getting into fights. I grew up in a family of 15 in a four-bedroom house. It was dysfunctional, so that alone made me want to be an MMA fighter. It's really the only sport where you gotta basically depend on yourself.

Johnny Hendricks has better credentials, but in MMA, I might be the best wrestler for the style.

For me, I think you can coach guys in martial artsm, and wrestling can be one aspect of it, but I have no desire to be an NCAA wrestling coach again. It was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever had.

I put myself in a position where I made wrestling an option for me. I don't have to wrestle. I don't have to take another shot for the rest of my life if I don't want to. I have good enough hands, good enough boxing, good enough timing to strike with anybody in our division.

I didn't pick wrestling over football. My coaches picked that for me. I never wanted to wrestle in college. I always wanted to play football. They thought I was too small, but I had a lot of heart.

The true game of mixed martial arts is putting your wrestling in there, putting your striking in there, but also being deceiving - hiding behind your punches if you're wrestling and hiding behind your wrestling if you're punching. It's just a matter of blending it all together.

I guess you could say I fell into it. The main goal was to be successful and to make my family proud. Back then, MMA was just getting started, and there didn't seem to be a ton of rules. It seemed pretty brutal, and I was still pretty focused on wrestling. But I decided to give it a shot.

Wrestling is second nature: I've been doing it for so long, so if it looks like someone's leg is available, it made sense for my first three fights that I would shoot for legs.

I'm gonna fall back, do my thing, but goddamn, I'm going to be a tough dude to deal with.