Quotes from Ben Askren

I'll sell a million pay-per-views if you're smart enough to market me the right way.

If you can't say where you're going, you're not going to get there. And I've known all along where I'm going, and sometimes the road takes a few curves that you didn't see, but you've got to stay the path.

A male athlete's peak, I believe, should be somewhere between 26 and 30.

Some people who come from high levels in other backgrounds where they're used to being the best or used to being on a kind of pedestal, it's hard to kind of lower yourself again and just be one of the grunts. I kind of enjoyed that challenge in MMA.

One of the big things is I try not to worry about things I can't control.

I've been around the block. I travel a lot to gyms.

Nate Diaz sucks.

In college wrestling, you see a lot of talented athletes come in and fail because Division I class wrestling is the pinnacle of wrestling in America.

My two things I always said is, No. 1, I'd be retired by the time I had my first kid, and No. 2, I'd be retired by the time I was 30.

I'm open to any welterweight on Planet Earth.

In MMA, all of these coaches are doing their best.

I like coaching a lot.

When someone decides to come into the UFC, and they don't have a combat sports background, you're kind of thinking, 'Does he really understand what he's getting into?'

Every single time you compete, I don't care what it is, you want to perform the best you can, and I feel like I'm doing that.

When you're competing, you need to be selfish. You need to think of yourself first.

I'm more of a purist competitor, and I enjoy the fighting aspect of it, but people enjoy my personality, and they enjoy that I tell the truth.

You need to take care of yourself first, and you can't think of others quite as much if you want to be a successful competitor.

I want to go and fight the best guys in the world and show people I'm the best. And hey, if something doesn't go my way - I don't think that's gonna happen. I realize that's a possibility in competition, and that's what happens.

The worst 24- to 36-hour period of my whole camp, the part I like the least, is the part where I've gotta cut 13 to 15 pounds of water weight.

I think I'm the best in the world at 170 pounds, so why would I need to go down? If, at some point, I beat everyone at 170, I'd consider going up. If I've eliminated all my challenges, yeah, at that point I would consider going up.

When I came through the ranks in wrestling - in high school and college - those systems have been in place for 100 years, and they're fairly standard training across the board for all the colleges.

I don't like Jay Hieron very much. He just bothers me, the way he talks, and he thinks very highly of himself.

Andrey Koreshkov is not well-rounded. He's been taken down and mounted and has his back taken by Lyman Good, which tells me he's a terrible grappler. He isn't well rounded. He's a good striker, but that's it.

I think every promoter's job is to pump their athletes up. Like, you see, Dana White did it all the time with branding people: all of a sudden, they're the best thing since sliced bread, just because that's the promoter's job.