“Amanda is a great champ. I admire that she's been able to retain her b...” — Julianna Pena Quote

Amanda is a great champ. I admire that she's been able to retain her belt for so long. But I'm just not afraid of her.

It doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, I want to stand in that limelight to let women know that we are strong and can achieve literally anything we set our minds to.

My sister invited me to a woman's cardio kickboxing class. It was love at first punch. My coach said I was a natural and I just kept coming back to his cardio kickboxing classes. They invited me to stay for the MMA classes.

Physicality is only one part of the puzzle.

I won't be denied. I have an unwavering belief in myself and my skillset.

I've just aimed to go out with a clear mind; to try not to premeditate my shots and if I'm going to play a few big shots I try to have a few deliveries under my belt first; have my eye in a bit better.

We live in the Bible Belt. I was born and raised in church. That's something that was really, really important to me, to build that foundation with our kids so they at least went to church.

We came to 135 to snatch a belt, and I felt like I definitely wanted to do that. I'd be a two division, three-time world champion. So I thought it was a great idea to do, so we did it.

In my mid-adolescence, my friend Terry Martin and I became obsessed with William F. Buckley. This makes more sense when you realize that we were living in Bible Belt farming country miles from civilization. Buckley seemed impossibly exotic.