"Sambo is great. Jiu-jitsu is nothing special. We went over several jiu-jitsu guys like that before. I lost because of what happened.  My loss was caused by my personal mistake in the cage… I lost my head. Wanted to finish it all as soon as possible."

"As far as the rumours about my last fight being set up... I was asked about it many times already. I will never go against my conscience and never betray my country like that. Money doesn't matter that much to me that I could lie to people. Since I lost to Werdum, it was meant to be. And I'm thankful to God it happened that way."