Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If my son wants a boxing career, I won't stop him, but I definitely won't push him. It's bad for a kid to be pressured.
I either had to concentrate on fighting, or I had to help my family. I chose my family. I love my mom; I love my family.
We try to tell these guys that the end of a boxing career isn't the end of their lives: it's the beginning of a new one.
You go through pain. You feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable until you change. I acquired a different outlook.
Looking back, I couldn't get enough fights because Don King owned most of the top 10 fighters, and he never gave me a fight.
Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.
I'm easygoing. There's a place and time for everything. When that bell rings, I'm not nice and easy. I'm not meek and passive.
[Michael Spinks] didn't belong in the same ring as me, but I wasn't taking good care of myself because of drink and he beat me.
I like the Klitschko boys, I think they're in a class of their own. I like Manny Pacquiao. All the super-middleweights are great.
Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren't working out, you say, 'Let me step away for a while.' But the fire still burns.
I was lucky. I held on to some of my money. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after boxing. But I found what I wanted to do.
It's like you always think that when you get to a goal, you'll be happy. But then there is always something else that interests you.
When I hurt Norton, I got scared. I looked to the referee. But in the same sense, you're a fighter: you gotta have the killer instinct.
Today I have a great life. I have three kids and a beautiful wife. I play golf every day. I give to charities. I'm in a lucky position.
It's like I had two things pulling at me: you want to be a fighter, and you have problems. So I couldn't be a fighter, and I wasn't solving any problems.
I liked to watch the expression in the fighter's face change when you connected with him. You know when you connect in the right spot. It's like a tunnel vision.
The road hasn't always been paved for me. People identify with that. Everybody passes through hard times, and I think that's part of my appeal - that I have, too.
In '82, I was a little too young, I was a little inexperienced, and I was more concerned with going the distance in the fight than going out and taking Holmes out.
When I fought Holmes, I feel I was a better fighter than he was. I was just so caught up in what was written about the fight - I got caught up in that whole thing.
I've just had some bad luck. I've had every injury known to man. I understand how people think, 'How can this be happening all the time to Gerry Cooney?' But it did.
I'm a real person. I have real feelings. I have real thoughts. It's a quality people like about me. They can reach out and touch me. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
I had personal problems. I was spending 50% of my life on my family, 50% on boxing. Neither was getting anywhere. It was killing me. So I had to break away from fighting.
I have this want-to-be-liked thing, but deep down, I had this rage. I was just - I was blinded. I wasn't healthy enough to be able to learn more. I had one mode - to fight.
I don't overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more 'Hail Mary' punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position.
I don't care about the critics. I took a lot of nonsense. I got stuck with silly labels like 'White Hope.' What about other guys like Tex Cobb - they never had those labels?
Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.
When I get finished with fighting, I hope they ask the same questions. It's not my purpose to answer them. Boxing is the art of self-defense. I knock 'em out the first chance I get.
I don't want anybody guarding me. I want to be free; I want to be left alone... I would like to go out there and have no one know me, but at the same time, it would bother me, y'know.
The only regret I have in my career, is my managers wanted a big payday, and I wanted four or five more fights before going in with [Larry] Holmes. That would have made all the difference.
You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing.
I always felt I was wounded. That I was no good, a piece of crap, and that I wouldn't amount to anything, because that's what my father always told me. I just felt like I didn't belong anywhere.
With the Klitschkos, though, unless someone comes around, they can stay where they are forever! The heavyweight division is lackluster, and it will be until someone comes along who can test them.
People haven't seen enough of me. My fights haven't gone the distance, and people have a lot of questions. I want to find out for myself as much as the people do. I want to find out what I can do.
I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they'll need to really pay attention to it.
You take that walk from the dressing room to the ring and that's when the real man comes out. Then you climb up those four stairs and into the ring. Then finally, you can't wait for the bell to ring.
I saw my brother have an altercation one time. He hit a guy with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. He not only knocked the guy out, but out of wind. That stuck with me. It scared me.
A lot of the athletes moved away from boxing, into UFC - which I think is really crazy, where they elbow to the head and knee to the jaw. I think that's really a barbaric sport - but boxing is coming back.
When I see a fighter gets into the ring, I not only see the fighter, but I see his wife and children. I care about what happens to them. I care about what happens to that fighter after he gets out of the ring.
Boxing was a way to express my anger. All of a sudden, I was expressing anger, and I was good at it. I was like a Jekyll and Hyde. Boxing helped me because I was fighting the anger out. I was knocking guys out.
Gil Clancy told me to move around for six or seven rounds, but when you're a puncher and you catch someone, you got after them. And in that fight [with George Foreman in 1999] my timing was off and I got caught.
Too many guys don't know what to do with their lives after boxing. I was lucky because I had two managers who didn't trust each other, and so they were always making sure where all the money was, and because of that, so did I.
Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning.
The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.
I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.
If you look at my career, towards the end you will see I was fighting like once a year. I was not part of the Don King top heavyweights, so I was kind of kept out. His guys were getting three to four fights a year and I could only get one.
Joe DeGuardia, I love that guy. He's not a superstar promoter yet, but he will be. He was a fighter himself; he's staying the course with these guys. He's developing some good fighters out there. I really applaud him whenever I get a chance to.
I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.
All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. So when the fighter is through, he is through. While he was fighting his management was very excited for him, but now that he is done, that management team is moving on.
I don't care what you say about me anymore! I don't care what you write about me anymore. I don't care! This is my life. I can't have anybody messing with my life. I just want to be Gerry Cooney, doing what I want to do. I want to be what I am. A fighter.
You have got to not get hit. You could be the best puncher in the world, but if you're going to keep constantly taking punches you're going to lose your heart. Once you learn how to miss the punches and then you start to punch them, you become an all-around fighter.