My day job keeps me grounded. When I show up to work, I'm not some star fighter or anything, I'm just Stipe. I'm going to keep working in my hometown as long as I can.
I just want to work hard and have good fights.
I think I train too hard.
I'm actually pretty frugal with my money.
It's up to the UFC. Whoever they put in front of me, I'll fight.
I've wrestled my whole life, and when I got done with college, I went back to school to become a firefighter. I liked MMA, but I didn't really know if I wanted to get punched in the face!
All you can do is the same as any other fight: whoever they put in front of you, you go in there and try to get the W.
I've done things that weren't good, you know, but I made up for my mistakes.
I wouldn't want my corner throwing in the towel no matter what. I wouldn't want my corner to do that.
Whoever they want me to fight, I'm going to fight. So I really don't care.
Cleveland's a great city. I love the city. The people here are awesome. They're loyal and hard-working, and they're loyal to our sports scene, and things are changing here.
I like winning, and I worked too hard to get where am at now. I'm not giving it up.
Fabio Maldonado jumped up to heavyweight for our fight, and while he wasn't ranked, he is a super-tough dude and had never been knocked out before.
Cleveland people are crazy; that's why I live here.