King Green was tucked up in bed and yawning when he joined Fox Sports Australia on a video call this week.
It seemed a fair place to start. Just days ago, the UFC cult favourite revealed he was living out of his car, despite owning nine houses and having pocketed a $100,000 bonus for his last win.
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So, with a fight against Esteban Ribovics coming up this weekend at UFC 332, whose bed was he in?
“I’m still in the same position as before,” Green said. “I don’t have a home, but I have nine houses. I have an apartment complex.
“I have a lot of property, but I don’t have a home for myself.
“We’re in a hotel now. The UFC pays for it.”
Green previously explained that friends were living in his houses, while a break-up had disrupted plans to move into another property.
It made for one of the more unusual fight-week stories of the year, even by the standards of a bloke who does nothing at all by the book.
Inside the cage, though, life is going pretty well.
Green turned 40 last month and has won four fights in a row. The latest was a wild comeback against Terrance McKinney in July.
He spent much of the opening round in trouble and then stopped McKinney with just one second left on the clock.
The finish earned him that $100,000 performance bonus. Two months later, a video of Green explaining that he was living in his car left plenty of fans scratching their heads.
Ask Green what has sparked this late-career run and he says it’s pretty simple.
“It’s just that time tells all truths,” he said when asked why things were coming together.
“Over time, that’s it. Just time is telling the truth.”
Fight week doesn’t seem to have him particularly worked up, either.
“I feel great. It’s just another day at the office for me.”
For fans, a King Green fight rarely looks like an ordinary day at the office. He fights with his hands low, talks smack constantly and seems to enjoy winding up his opponent.
Does anyone ever give him a decent reply?
“Sometimes they talk, but usually they are just like, ‘What the …’,” Green laughed.
“Some people try to do something to make me stop talking – and that just makes me talk more.”
It has helped make him a cult hero after more than a decade in the UFC, although Green says he doesn’t spend much time thinking about his following.
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“I guess so, but I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t pay much attention to those things, brother. I’m just doing my job and just trying to really impact people and inspire people, love people.”
He is more interested in clearing up one impression he thinks fans may have.
“I think people think I’m cocky and arrogant, and I’m really just trying to put on a show for people,” Green said.
“I will give you something different that you’ve never seen. I call it adding some seasoning to the fight. Just seasoning it up a little bit better.”
Green has been showing off his hands outside the Octagon, too. Footage of a heated sparring session with a professional boxer at Adrien Broner’s gym recently made the rounds online.
Fight fans were surprised to see a UFC fighter dominating a boxer under boxing rules. Green says he does it regularly.
“My coaches always made us go to different boxing gyms,” he said. “That happens all the time, brother. That happens all the time. You guys have just never seen it.
“They always make fun of me. They all laugh at me and they say I don’t know what I’m doing, and then I get in there and I beat them all up.”
Green says earning enough to help others, including buying them homes, is one of the reasons he keeps going.
“Just the ability to change people’s lives. The ability to help people and take care of them,” he said. “I really want to just help people a lot.”
Green has no retirement date in mind. He credits his fighting style, his health, the work he puts into looking after himself and his faith for his longevity.
“I’m a fighter until I die,” he said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time, brother. I’m just trying to be blessed and grateful for everything I do have going for me.”
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Nor is he promising a spectacular finish against Ribovics, despite the run he is on.
“I have no idea,” Green said when asked how the fight would unfold. “I leave all that to God. Whatever God has planned is what God’s plan is. I just simply fight my best.”
“This kid’s pretty tough,” he added. “The only thing I can predict for you is gonna be a good fight.”