UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor spoke recently with Colin Cowherd, ahead of his fight Saturday night vs. Nate Diaz, in the main event of UFC 196. McGregor is known as one of the most passionate figures in a sport defined by passion, but he said in the Octagon, he is stripped of emotion, and free.

“You know, for me [the Octagon] is where I’m almost the least nervous,” said McGregor, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMA Fighting. “There are other things that might make me nervous. Things like doing the Conan O’Brien Show. I might get a little more nervous for these unusual things than I would walking out to the Octagon. Walking out to Octagon and stepping into a cage is something I literally do every single day of my life. I step foot inside an Octagon and train and compete.

“It’s just another day for me. I’m unshackling chains off me when I make that walk. It’s freedom for me in there. I get to go in. I have nobody telling me what I can do or how I can do it. I’m free to paint the picture how I want. That’s it. I enter, I come out the gate fast and I spin and I set the tone for the unorthodox and then set my opponent up for a KO blow and then I execute it. It’s simply another day for me.”

“I don’t really hate Nate. I have no hate for any man that is on the same journey as me. We’re all chasing the same dream here so I can’t hate the man with the same dream as me. For me, it’s business. There is no emotion there. I go in and I decipher his movements, I decipher his reactions and I make a trap for him and I walk him into the trap. Whether situations in the fight are being verbalized, this is just another day inside the Octagon.

“They talk while they do their work but Nate is no different and I am no different. I’m sure there will be talking but it is business. There is no hate. There is cold.”