“(The blood) gave me motivation. The fans just went nuts. There was so much blood in the cage that night from him. Literally, it was the next day, and I had already taken two or three showers—the next day I still found blood in my ear, outside my ear. I found it inside, like rolled up in my eyelids.
“There was so much blood, I can’t even tell you. It was ridiculous. I can still taste it to this day. Like liquid metal. It was nuts. And definitely it motivated me. And that was a war. That was a war. I remember peeing blood after that.”
“When I went back I said, ‘Here’s the deal.’ I was kind of dealing with some injuries. I could have done some other things differently. I didn’t have a strength and conditioning coach. I could have been eating a little bit better year-round. I could have been training a little bit more. It was a kick in the ass for me and got me to train like a true professional. I was a professional fighter fighting. After that, I became a professional who fought… A professional athlete.
“And that’s the way I approached it. It really paid off. Before every fight, I always worked harder and harder, and I was able to increase my capacity to train more and more…those losses provided so much fuel for me.”