Matt Mitrione spent time with the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings during a brief stint in the National Football League. Now an undefeated heavyweight mixed martial artist inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the 33-year-old, in an exclusive interview with Sherdog.com, compared the two entities ahead of his UFC 137 matchup with Cheick Kongo on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas:

“The athletes are much more accessible, down-to-earth and humble and OK with being a regular Joe than NFL guys. Most NFL guys are cool but feel like they kind of have a bit more of a privileged life, which they do to a certain extent. As far as the powers that be, the UFC is much more socially aware and in touch and driven than the NFL, which is light years behind [the] UFC as [a] presence. Even though the NFL has great turnouts and fanfare, the UFC experience is much, much greater than what the NFL is doing, in my opinion.”