Ryan Hall will make his much-anticipated return to the Octagon this Saturday at UFC 264, facing Ilia Topuria after a two-year lay-off. Ahead of the fight, Ryan Hall sat down with Matt Serra and Jim Norton on the UFC Unfiltered Podcast. They talked about a wide variety of topics, everything from the matchmaking in the UFC to how Hall developed his BJJ.
Here are some of the highlights of what Hall had to say:

About fighters refusing to face him:

“You can’t put compliments [about fighters evading matches with him] in the bank and you can’t use compliments to get to the next level of the game. On the one hand, I don’t know why people don’t want to fight, on the other hand it is frustrating, but I’m glad to be back.”

About his entertaining style:

“People are gonna like it or not like it. I can’t control that, all I can do is play with everything that I’ve got and the chips will fall where they will.”

About fitting his BJJ game to MMA:

“Over time, you try to get down to the core of what allows things to work. Someone can be on the surface doing a knee through pass… There’s a lot of nuance to it. How it works, where it fits, why it really works… Over the years I feel like I’ve done my best to internalize those things, and I’ve lost a lot. But I know how to win now. And I know a lot more than I once did and I’ve worked hard and I’ve gotten beat up enough times that it’s hard not to improve… I know that win or lose this weekend I will be better after I walk into that ring than I am before it.”

About his enjoyment of fighting:

“That’s why I enjoy fighting. Because of who you have to be to be able to use your skills in the ring against a world class opponent… can you remain calm and composed? Can you execute what you’ve trained? Can you still be yourself even in what would otherwise be a trying moment, and I think that’s what martial arts is meant to teach us.”

Listen to the full conversation here.