Quotes from Ryan Bader

We get stereotyped as MMA fighters as being barbarian and trying to hurt people. A lot of us are college-educated, like myself.

I love proving people wrong and proving myself right and my coaches.

I like proving people wrong.

Winning is everything to us, but at the same time you've gotta have exciting fights and keep pushing it in that way.

I get wanting to fight in the UFC. I got my start there. I fought 20 times there.

Some fighters don't like to travel when they fight but I fought in Australia and I loved it.

I'm in the gym - that's my full-time job. I leave it all in there. When I walk out of that gym I am now the husband, the friend and the father.

There was a time in the UFC, after the Anthony Johnson fight, where I said, 'You know what? I'm gonna quit making a big deal of these fights. I'm gonna have fun and make it exciting and enjoy the process.'

Seeing friends become successful, you go, 'I can do that, too.' I ran with it fresh out of college. MMA was the next step.

After I started training with some of the best in the world and fighting in the UFC, I started really wanting fights with guys I used to idolize and watch on TV. Guys like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture.

I know Stipe, I trained with him a little bit. He's a good guy but I feel I match up with him well.

I'm more of a grinder, just get out there and get the job done.

You're never guaranteed anything.

The wrestling community is a tight community, I love you all.

I think 205 is the place for me. I walk around at 225, 230 at the most, and that's kind of small for a heavyweight. I think 205 is where I'll be.

I don't think I need to pick a weight class. I feel like I'm that perfect in between. I have the strength, I have the power to fight at heavyweight and I can drop down to 205.

It's not like I'm fighting bums out here, I'm fighting the best competition out there, and I'd been a perennial top five guy in the UFC before I left.

You can call Roy Nelson a wrestler, but he's never fought a dynamic, explosive wrestler.

I want to fight Cormier, that's been a fight I've been trying to get forever. I can go in there and take him down. I can threaten him in ways he hasn't been threatened. I don't think he's fought a wrestler like me.

I came into this game a wrestler and that was pretty much it. I was tough, I could take a guy down and beat him up. I threw a good overhand right.

In my past, I've always had the physical abilities. They were always there, but sometimes the mental side of it - I was younger coming in as a wrestler, didn't know what the hell I was doing on my feet.

I was pretty one-dimensional, a wrestler.

We came up in that - keep your mouth shut, let your hard work do the talking, and I came into MMA like that.

I need that name in Rashad Evans, a name that UFC and the fans respect. They know his skill set. They know what he can do. You go out there and beat a guy like that, you've proved yourself to the UFC and to the fans.