**One thing that's a little surprising about your training is that you don't spar at all before a fight. **

Look at all the injuries that happen in the sport of MMA and in the UFC with people sparring. For me, with how much technique I can improve on, fine-tuning all the little things makes me better. There's always technique to learn and improve on. I don't believe I need to be sparring at this exact moment and possibly risk getting hurt. The sport of MMA is changing. There are multiple MMA fighters with the UFC that are changing up the way they train, going away from the sparring aspect. I know the UFC wants all the fighters to be healthy, so having sparring eliminated and the possibility of being injured eliminated, that definitely helps your whole career.

I wanted to talk a little bit about your last fight, against Bryan Barberena. It was your first loss as a professional fighter, but from other interviews you've given, it sounds like you weren't 100 percent going into that fight.

Originally, I was supposed to fight Andrew Holbrook, at 155 pounds, so lightweight. About a week before the fight itself, he broke his foot. With about a week's notice, I was moved up to fight at 170 pounds. The reason me and my coaches even accepted that was because I had real bad strep throat at the time. We figured that it would help my body recover and heal up from being so sick if I didn't have to cut back all that weight. But about two days before the fight, the UFC had to actually take me to the emergency room. That's how bad my throat was inflamed.

The day of the fight itself, I could almost barely get out of bed. On top of all that, I had a wisdom tooth that was growing in my mouth that was causing massive headaches and a ton of sinus pressure in my nose. I really couldn't breathe out of my nose because of all that sinus pressure, and then having the strep throat so bad and with my throat so swollen, it was like breathing through a little tiny straw. My whole body was worn out. It was drained, and I just wasn't my normal self.

**Had you not been dealing with all those problems, do you think the fight ends differently? **

I'm not making excuses for the fight, but it was difficult just walking into the octagon. I had to take my mouthpiece out about two or three times in a matter of 15 seconds, just because I couldn't breathe at all. It was like I was suffocating. Typically, when someone gets a choke on me, I have a pretty strong neck. It's usually hard to choke me. So when Barberena had me down there in the arm-triangle choke, I didn't have my normal strength or cardio. Any technique I possibly knew, it was like my body wasn't reacting to what my brain was telling it. I wasn't able to go for any underhooks or overhooks. I believe it would have been different if I wasn't sick. For sure.

**It was also your third fight in four months. Do you think, with all those mitigating factors going on before the fight, that the best thing for you would have been to step back and not take the fight after Holbrook dropped out? **

You know, sure, that may have been the best choice once we found out that my original opponent broke his foot. That probably would have been the best choice, because I was so sick. To tell you the truth, I've never really been sick like that before. Now we're making changes to help ensure that I stay healthy. Slowing things down to prevent myself from getting sick again.

**You entered the UFC with both a lot of hype and hate. Now that you've lost a fight and been forced to take a step back to heal up, have you given much thought to that dichotomy? **

I don't create the hype. When there is hype, it's not me creating it. I'm just out there having fun in every single thing that I do. Sure, there are people who say negative things or maybe aren't in your corner or who are now second-guessing if I can do this. But there are also people who believe in you and that are pushing you up and helping you get better and better. I'm only looking at the positive aspect of it.

Be honest, are you always smiling?

Yes, sir. I am smiling right now, actually. I'm always pretty much smiling.