Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
British fans are the best, and we are seeing that. They love the sport of boxing. They follow, they travel, they love their fighters. They will go anywhere in the world to support you. They support better than any other country I've seen to this day.
They've made it a felon to drive from Florida to Louisiana with any fighting birds, so I've had to get rid of most of my chickens. I only got about a hundred left now, which I just keep for colour and breeding. I love those birds as much as anything.
Some of those guys show a lot of promise, especially Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Even the kid Joseph Parker, who Joshua is about to fight, shows a lot of promise. I'm looking forward to some really exciting fights in the heavyweight division to come.
I'm having a wonderful time in training. It's so funny because you go through ups and you go through downs. People have to realize that my career started on a down. I got ripped off a Gold Medal at the Olympics but it didn't stop me and it made me a better person.
You can't pretend there has ever been anyone come close to doing what I did. Nobody you could name could touch me, and I'm talking about nobody who's around now, nobody who was around in my prime, and nobody who was around any time you can mention outta your mouth.
There's one thing I remember about Muhammad Ali. He said "I don't like my condition, but if this is what the Good Lord has planned for me to deal with, I'm happy with that." You have to understand, that comes from my idol, one of the guys that got me started in boxing.
If you go to Madison Square Garden, you better have your A game ready, because here goes the thing, they love boxing. They either like you, or they don't like you. They're either cheering for you, or they're cheering for you to die...They want you to kill, or be killed.
In my prime, I was the ruler. Simple as that. I understand there's a lot of great fighters who've followed me already since I was the champ - and I hope there's another who comes along does even better because want to see that - but I haven't seen anyone do what I did yet.
One thing I learned from the '88 Olympics: It's not a question of if they can screw you over: it's a question of if they will. It's not the gold medal they took away from me. The medal doesn't mean anything. It's that they said I lost. That experience is well and alive in my mind.
This fan thing doesn't really have any effect on my career goals. You know, I'll still be training fighters and haven't made any career plans yet. Just like I hadn't made any career plans before I fought Maccarinelli. I'll see how it goes, see how I feel. I always listen to my body.
I don't really give in to the critics because critics are always going to criticize, and what have they done? A person who has never done nothing can't really care nothing about doing something. So as far as the critics, I don't care what they think. I don't have time to give to critics.
I got real bored in '96. Wasn't nobody to fight. Nothing to look forward to. That's when I started playing basketball again. Had I not started playing basketball, my boxing career would have failed. But I went from a sport where nobody could touch me to another where I couldn't touch nobody.
It was a tough situation. A fight that nobody expected to end so abruptly for him because he was really a great fighter. I felt sorry for him and I knew it could happen to anybody. And it could happen to any of us at any time. So when I was in a position to help him, I did what I could to help him.
That was probably the most important fight of my career...he was this crazy guy, who acted like most adults that I knew as a kid, and I knew right away by him being so crazy and wild and quick tempered, I was gonna get under his skin and aggravate the heck out of him. And that's exactly what I did.
When I fought Montell Griffin, he quit on me, on the floor, I hit him with a soft punch and he laid down like I knocked him out, and it kinda upset me. I told him I don't care what it is, just give me the rematch. And then I really had to teach him the difference between acting like you've been knocked out, and getting hit for real.
When me and Mike Tyson were around, we played king of the hill. Whoever comes to the hill, you get your behind whooped. We don't pick and choose. I fought guys when I had fractured wrists and ribs, bad backs, I didn't care. I was the king of the hill; Tyson was king of the hill. When we left, people were trying to get the 'most money fight.'
I never was a person that wanted that life...I'm a leader not a follower. I don't care what they say, or what they're doing or what they're wearing. Go ahead, cos come Judgement Day, all of that won't matter. How many people did you help. How many people did you talk to. How many people did you try to encourage. How many people did you bring to God. That's what's gon' matter.
The knockouts did not change me as a fighter. I was more of a boxer as a heavyweight. The problem was when I came back to light heavyweight, I lost all of the muscle and I lost all of the energy. I was going for the knockout because I didn't want to go the whole 12 rounds because my body was tired. I couldn't understand why my body was tired and it didn't dawn on me until now.
I feel ashamed tonight that we treated Lennox Lewis the way we did because he gave it all his effort but everytime Don King's involved, you can expect a draw to come from somewhere. Ask Pernell Whitaker about the Julio Cesar Chavez fight...I thought Evander Holyfield gave a very game effort, but you win some and you lose some...tonight I'm upset because Lennox Lewis did not lose and it was not a draw. It's as simple as that.