Hominick: Aldo never faced anyone with my striking capability
“This is huge, but the thing with me, I’ve been fighting professionally for 10 years. I’ve gone through the bottom,…
“This is huge, but the thing with me, I’ve been fighting professionally for 10 years. I’ve gone through the bottom, and now I’ve got a chance to go against the top – the best of the best. Those are the guys I’ve always wanted to face.”
“I’ve always trained hard, and I’m improving everywhere. I think it’s the mental state. When I kind of had that rough patch of win, loss, win, loss, I was going into the fight so concerned about what my opponent was doing and what they were going to do to me as opposed to what I was going to do to them.
“If I was fighting a strong jiu-jitsu guy, I was going in there thinking, ‘I don’t want to go to the ground with this guy because he’s got great submissions,’ as opposed to, ‘OK, I’m going to defend his takedowns, and I’m going to punch him and knock him out. That’s the type of mentality I’ve had going in now. That’s five in a row now. I haven’t lost for two-and-a-half years. That’s what’s changed – my mental state going into the fight. I’m more confident in what I can do and what I’m capable of.”
“This is the dream of every fighter – to fight for the title and to fight in front of your home province. All of those things are on my mind, and I feel that’s where I have my best performances.
“I fought in the UFC in 2006. I went up and fought a new weight class. Now I’m 3-0 in the UFC, so those are the kind of fights I perform best in. I perform in the spotlight. Being semi-main event, co-headlining and fighting for the title, that’s where I’m going to perform.”
“Nothing against Jose Aldo. I think he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter, fantastic striker. But he’s never faced anybody with my striking capability. We’ll see how he does against it.
“He’s been making wrestlers look like poor strikers, and a lot of times, that’s not too hard. He’s not going to do that to me, and I’m going in there with that kind of confidence. I know he’s the best in the world, but he’s never faced anybody like me.”