Speaking in the The MMA Hour earlier this week (Monday), this is what Jordan Burroughs had to say:

“It’s exciting. I can’t deny it, I can’t deny it at all”. “There was a period of time early in my career where I was like, I’m gonna definitely fight. I definitely want to be a part of this lifestyle. Then there was a period of time where I had so much success in the sport of wrestling and I was like, I don’t really need fighting. I’m good, I’m doing well financially, I’ve got a solid following. I’ve got a family, I’m healthy, I’m good.

“Now I’ve arrived at a place too where I’m seeing all of these guys that I once trained alongside become champions—and this is not a shot at any of those dudes—but if these guys can become champion, then I know I can become a champion because I possess all the same qualities that these guys possess. It’s exciting, it’s exciting. It’s something that I’d definitely consider. If I do consider fighting, it won’t be until after the Olympic games in 2020, and then from there I’ll reevaluate, see if it’s something that would be a realistic option for me.”

“Because at this point, the great thing about what I do now is that when I leave the arena after a competition, I’m healthy,” Burroughs said. “I go back to my house or I go to a restaurant with my buddies, I don’t have to go to the hospital. It’s just a significantly different lifestyle than we have.

“No one steps into this Octagon expecting to get beat up and take a lot of punishment, so it’s something that I have to evaluate with my wife and my coaching staff here. But for the right price, I’d be willing to consider it for sure.”

“I don’t think we ever will,” Burroughs said when asked if wrestlers will ever fully embrace trash talking. “It’s just not who we are, it’s not within our characters and the ideals that we created for the sport. We’ve wanted to be guys that, although we are competitors—and not that guys in the UFC are morally corrupt, but I think that they just go to a different place and when you’re fighting a guy sometimes you have to be in that place.

“As wrestlers, we’re not trying to hurt or damage physically our opponent. All we’re trying to do is score points and get our hands raised, so I think that’s where we differ from the UFC, but I think that also the way in which we could address each other could be cool from a competitive spirit. I actually enjoyed the trash talk with Ben because I felt like it was modest, but it was fun. You’re playing a game of Madden at your crib with some of your buddies, it’s the way that we would address each other. Listen, there’s no disrespect, there’s no hard feelings, I appreciate you, you’re a tremendous athlete and competitor, but also, I want you to understand that I think I can win. I think I’m capable of winning and I think I am going to win and that’s important.”

“Maybe next year we can invite more former wrestlers that have transitioned to MMA to come back and compete against current wrestlers,” Burroughs said. “I think that if we can follow this model, I think it can continue to be successful and I think every year it could get better and better with people willing to put it on the line. Who’s going to be willing to come back and compete against some guy who’s competing all the time in wrestling and their focus is solely on wrestling? I don’t know.”

“But I think a guy like Henry Cejudo vs. Nick Suriano, or a guy like Daniel Cormier vs. Kyle Snyder, or me against Kamaru Usman, J’Den Cox vs. Jon Jones, all these fights, I don’t know if these guys would even be willing to do it, but it does present some pretty darn intriguing matchups.”

Do you think Jordan will fare well inside the Octagon?