I'm a very good coach... because I see the way the kids react once they get in the ring and start actually sparring. I see that they are calm, relaxed, and they're working like we work in the gym, and they are doing what they've been taught.

For my whole career, I didn't have sparring partners. I was frustrated when I came to the UFC because, after a few minutes of the first round, I would feel dead because I had no sparring partners.

When most people think of Tae Kwon Do - which, in the United States, is not all that often - they think of sparring, a form of competition that both men and women perform at the Olympics.

Even after you win the championship, the work doesn't stop; it probably only becomes more. I'm just basically focused on what I need to do. There's a lot that goes into this - diet, preparation, assembling the right people around you, sparring partners, coaches, etc. - so I'm not enjoying anything.

The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists.

I had to get up run in the morning for 2 hours, go to the gym and also get good opponents as sparring partners because I'm a big believer in that how you train is how you will fight at least when it came to me that's how it worked.

I was nobody; I showed up to sparring in a white wife beater and Hawaiian shorts. I had plimsolls; I didn't have boxing shoes. It just shows you don't need to have fancy equipment or experience: you're either a good fighter, or you're not.

I've mixed sparring partners up. I've done tons upon tons of rounds with big, heavy lumps who are trying to take my head off.

I don't want to be knocked out. But the contact and the focus and the energy I get from sparring gives me energy to make movies, energy to be a dad, energy to be a friend, and, you know, makes me feel, probably, a lot younger and behave a lot younger than I am.

I run, but boxing conditioning is different, so you have to get used to running in the ring. Boxing movements are very different. Swimming is one of the best because every single muscle is working. I swim a lot. I train very hard at things that mimic boxing. I have to do mostly sport-specific training, such as lots of sparring.

Now I am training with sparring partners who are nice people, sure, but not my friends. These are sparring partners who want to knock me out in sparring. In the Croatian media, they said it was 'life and death' sparring - it was not quite life and death, but it was all-out fighting, very hard.

I always have my group of friends at the gym. We used to go hang out somewhere before. Now we're just hanging out at the gym. We have sparring parties where everyone beats each other up, but then we all eat my dad's cooking, and I hire a massage therapist, so everyone is just kicking back and having a good time. I just keep the environment great.

I remember I did a boxing class. I remember sparring one time, and the guy smacked me right in the nose, and I was just like, 'What is this? No. No. None of that.

When I was competing, I would run daily 20 kilometers, and in addition to that, I'd put in many hours of fighting and sparring. That's why I was always able to keep the speed in the ring. I would train so hard that sometimes it was not only hard to stand up, but it would also be hard to lay down.

I train for at least two hours, three times a day - weights, bench-press, push-ups, running, sparring, boxing sessions - so I must be burning off a lot of calories. But I don't weigh myself too often - just once every day.

I don't enjoy sparring with the audience. It devastates me.

I used to be so aggressive, but after a while I started learning. It's not that I know how to adapt, but I know all styles of fighting so I can change my style of fighting to whatever it needs to be. That just comes from years of training and a lot of sparring partners.

I did more weight training for Dimitrenko - we saw the big difference in sparring: everything felt stronger; it felt like the movement was much better. We were able to execute the plan in the Dimitrenko fight.

For me, it's very hard to train too much, just sparring, sparring, sparring. It's boring.

I could be sparring mates and you're meant to hit 'em, but we'll be sparring and usually I try and stop at the face, or I don't really try and follow through, but sometimes they walk into them and I say 'oh sorry mate.' They get angry and say 'we're sparring get into it,' but I dunno, I think I'm so used to saying sorry.