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My normal weight category is 48 kg. So for the 51 kg. category, I had to depend on lots of food and drinks before going in for the weigh-in. But that does not make my strength, my muscles. It's a little bit different. If there's a 48 kg. category, it's a perfect fit for me.
It has been said that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games is something that an athlete will remember for the rest of their life. It is true. That moment when you walk into the Olympic Stadium as part of the Australian Olympic Team, is a moment that I will never forget.
It takes a strong person to admit he's got problems. Things are bugging you, you've got to get it out. Life is supposed to be peaches and cream, but it doesn't turn out that way. I sometimes found things confusing and sometimes didn't understand how things can be so difficult.
People need a sense of purpose. Gross margins are not the stuff of which dreams are made. And even without going so far as to talk of dreams, you cannot inspire people to take action, create or motivate without instilling a sense of purpose, especially when times are difficult.
I was knocking guys out in the streets before I knew how to throw a jab and keep your chin down, In most neighbourhoods, the guy that could fight gets respect. You got in the parties free. I never had to pay the dollar because people were scared of me. But back then I was ignorant.
When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.
After every fight, I knock myself down. I start from scratch again. I say, 'I'm not as good as I thought.' It makes you work harder. It makes you push harder. It's more than money. It's more than the title. It's my pride, and it can be scary thinking about it. I could lose. It's scary.
Any UFC fighter, and any fighter going into the boxing ring and can do what they do in the UFC, nine out of 10 won't be victorious and vice-versa, with a boxer coming from - even myself - coming over to that field will be a fish trying to be in a jungle and survive. It's not going to happen.
I don't fear Holmes, but I think he's a good fighter. He has a lot of pride. But I wouldn't be fighting him if I feared him. It's going to be a tough fight. People say with all the hoopla out there, I won't be able to handle it. I believe the pressure's on him. I'm just going to do my thing.
A lot of people have been saying I am obsessed with the "making history" thing. But it's what pushes me, it's what drives me, it's a huge boost knowing that I am going to be the first. There's a long list of Olympic champions that have become world champions, but none of them are from England.
Too many fighters stay in the game for too long. They stay because it's awfully hard to walk away from the roar of the crowd. Really hard. You live for that and so you stay too long. And you might have a wife and kids to feed. So you keep fighting because you don't know how to do anything else.
No matter how many fights I got into, I was always the victor. I didn't like it, though. I remember being 12 years old, and I looked in the sky, and I said, 'God, I don't want to fight no more. I'm tired of fighting. I know what I want to do in my life, and fighting's not going to get me there.'
I hit Damian Fuller with a left hook that left him laid out for 30-45 minutes. They brought oxygen to him, they couldn't wake him up, he was out cold. The television station kept having to take breaks, he was out so long. It was unbelievable. That was the best one-shot I've ever done in my life.
I might get scared of a really big dog, but I don't scare easy. As a youngster I used to watch all the scary stuff by myself, so nothing really gets to me now. There's actually a new series on TV called Hellevator and I filled out an application to be on the show because I love that type of stuff.
I think Mike Gibbons was probably the greatest boxer that ever put a glove on. They called him The Wizard, The Phantom of the ring and he was that. I boxed with Mike about ten years and I never really hit him a hard punch during the time. Repeating again, Mike was one of the great boxers of the age.
When I was 15, I decided to take up the sport seriously, so I went down to the Y.M.C.A. My first day there, this little Italian guy beat my brains out. I decided to quit. Then I realized I really wanted to be a fighter. I worked at it, went back, and that little Italian guy didn't beat me up no more.
Every fight means everything. I have to stay focused no matter how high the stakes are or how low the stakes are, you have to stay focused and follow the game plan. At the end of the day it is going to be you and that guy in the ring and it's who wins the game will win the fight. That's what I learned.
I retired when I was 30, with all my marbles and a few bucks. But a lot of guys leave boxing penniless with no skills. Men in their 30s and early 40s, old for boxing, young in life, but also old in the job market if you're just getting started with no education. These guys need someone in their corner.
You do a deal - business deal, real estate deal, stock deal - protect yourself at all times. I got that from boxing. That's from A to Z: that covers everything in life. And it started when I heard it in the ring. They don't say that in basketball or football or any other sport that I know of but boxing.
I don't have to build up strength; I have been blessed with it. I do lift weights and train hard, but I am a very special individual - a very special man with very special talent and very special power. I can get any man - any man - out of there in a matter of seconds. That is the thing I love about myself.
I switched to my new trainer Abel Sanchez to add versatility to my game. I'm coming to fight a serious fight. If I knock him out, it will just put another feather in my cap. I'm predicting a win, but I never look for the knockout because that's not my game plan. If my punches result in a knockout, so be it.
I am not going to eat something that I have been told is not good for my system, and I do what I can to eat energy food, such as lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruit and vegetables. Without this daily habit, my body would have given up a long time ago. There is no magic pill, no magic drink, no magic food.
When youre growing up, its always nice to have someone you can relate and look up to. Im proud of how I conduct my business and how I have accomplished all that I have accomplished, and hope that I can be a positive influence on not only the Mexican community but also young boxers and people all around the world.
It's a different mindset. Coming from where I come from, we always had to defeat the odds. We didn't have what other people had. We had to work twice as hard for everything. To be noticed to be seen. Even back then it drove me to be the best that I can be. I wanted everyone to know I was somebody you had to watch.
Had I had another year, I think I would've beaten [ Harry Carpenter] - and Larry Holmes even said that himself; that if I'd had another year to get ready I'd have beaten him. Me and he are good friends today though, and that fight was a great moment for me. I lost, but then I had to move on and get on with my life.
It is true that we have not deliberately or wholly abandoned the Christian element in our tradition, but does that element count with us as it once did? Is the moral tone of the nation - its politics, its business life, its literature, its theatre, its movies, its radio networks, its television stations - Christian?
When you're growing up, it's always nice to have someone you can relate and look up to. I'm proud of how I conduct my business and how I have accomplished all that I have accomplished, and hope that I can be a positive influence on not only the Mexican community but also young boxers and people all around the world.
Today is the day when bold kites fly, When cumulus clouds roar across the sky. When robins return, when children cheer, When light rain beckons spring to appear. Today is the day when daffodils bloom, Which children pick to fill the room, Today is the day when grasses green, When leaves burst forth for spring to be seen.
We are raising a generation that has a woefully small stock of ideas and interests and emotions. It must be amused at all costs but it has little skill in amusing itself. It pays some of its members to do what the majority can no longer do for themselves. It is this inner poverty that makes for the worst kind of boredom.
I grew up in a household where I learned five things from my old man. You know what they were? You're no good. You're a failure. You're not going to amount to anything. Don't trust nobody, and don't tell nobody your business. When I lost to Larry Holmes in 1982, I felt all five of those things smacked me right across the face.
In this fight I want to show people who are in poverty, downtrodden or denied that you can succeed. I want my performance to be an inspiration to people. You have to stay in the moment and keep moving ahead. I just want to show everyone that you can find answers to your problems and afflictions with hard work and perseverance.
Anybody who knows me knows that I don't just love this sport, I am in love with it. I am really in love with this sport. I am obsessed with boxing. I eat, breathe and sleep it. You know, I do it all; this is my life. This is not a hobby for me. This is a lifestyle for me, and I address it accordingly. I take it very, very seriously.
I got messed up between my fight with Ken Norton and my fight with Larry Holmes; I got messed up with alcohol. I needed at least a year more experience, with three or four more fights before I fought Holmes. But I couldn't get any fights. Don King had all the contenders, and unless I signed myself over to him, I couldn't get a fight.
My father never once told me he loved me. I told him I loved him only one time - that was when he was sick. It was hard, the way he showed his love. I didn't understand what he was trying to teach me. Now I know, but it came too late for him to see it. After he was gone, I realized he was trying to strengthen my mind to make me better.
One thing about other people, when they come to the gym, they might waste time wrapping hands, doing stretching and things. I don't like that. If I come to the gym, if one hour - all work. If two hours - all. I don't want to do this stuff so I can stay like two hours in the gym training only one hour. I want to do my own - quick, quick.
When I went to college, I went to a junior college. I wanted to go to the University of Alabama but had to go to junior college first to get my GPA up. I did a half-year of junior college, then dropped out and had my daughter. College was always an opportunity to go back. But she, my daughter, was my support. I gave up everything for her.
I was christened the "British Bulldog" by friends and colleagues who said I not only looked like a bulldog but fought like one. I was more of a fighter than a boxer. The "Blackpool Rock" originated from the fact that previous to becoming a fighter I was employed in the Blackpool Rock Factory, rock being a form of what Americans call candy.
Later in life, when I'm retired and have a family of my own and will be able to send my kids to college, that's when I'll start spending. Way too many athletes go broke these days, and I like saving my money so that I can ensure my family and friends currently and after me will never have to endure some of the things I did when I was a kid.
It is an experiment worth trying to be alone and to be quiet for a brief period every day. Under city conditions it may be difficult to carry out, but most of us could do it if we tried. At any rate, we should moderate the pace at which we are living. If we remain at high gear, at top pressure, we are bound to suffer from fatigue and strain.
You think it's hard for me when I go in the ring and fight? That's the least of my problems. I think about the five years that I did in prison. I think about the nine years on parole. Nothing - nothing! - can compare to that struggle. I'm telling you, from being an ex-convict with 30 convictions, a degree nowhere to be found and black? I'm done.
I tell cold callers I'm very interested but a bit deaf, my hearing aid is not working properly and can they speak up. The idea is to deliberately miss-hear what they say, ask them to repeat, only louder, and see how loud I can get them to shout. After a while I say "I'm not really deaf" and was just wasting their time, as they were doing with me.
Hurdlers are sprinters with a problem. They're not satisfied just to sprint. Anybody can sprint, some not as well as others of course, but anybody can sprint. Not everybody can run hurdles. There's an extra dimension involved. Hurdlers would make a good subject for a thesis in psychology - they are of apersuasion that just needs an extra dimension.
When I was up in college, I had a friend, and he was the only guy who knew I wasn't going to be able to attend school no more because I had a child on the way. I remember we was right at the lunch table. I was like, 'Man, I should start boxing.' I felt like every fighter that's on TV made a lot of money. I was like, 'You gotta make a lot of money.'
Sometimes I pick up the phone, listen to cold caller alias name, repeat it several times in an incredulous tone and then - bam! - pretend to recognise them. I ask them if they remember the hell of a time we had at the 1985 summer camp when we set fire to the wooden shed, and I keep making things up and go on and on until they end up terminating the call.
Everybody is overlooking me. I just want to show the world that, hey, he is in there with a live dog. He is not in there with a little puppy. He is in there with a live dog. I am going to show the world that he belongs with the best; he wants to fight the best. This is the guy that has heart and balls that gives everything in the ring, that's what he wants.
Once you get in the ring and fight you are not even thinking about 'Oh it's going to be too early for me.' It's in the morning, but to me, I'm just ready to fight, to get It on. To show the world what I can do when I'm in top shape having the best training camp ever and when I come in mentally and physically ready to show everybody what they can expect from me.
The way to beat the Klitschkos is to get inside, under the jab, and bang to the body. Do that for two or three or four rounds and then the hands will come down and then you turn them over. It's like chopping a tree down. These guys try to headhunt when they fight them and that won't work. But you back them up, the younger brother especially, and he loses heart.
I think it's doing a good job at the things that Premier Boxing Champions was setting out for. I think it is still heading in the right direction, I don't think it's over. It is definitely bringing more boxing fans and an audience from people that normally wouldn't be watching boxing. I think it's doing a great job and will probably do a better job in the future.
I look at ordinary people in their suits, them with no scars, and I'm different. I don't fit with them. I'm where everybody's got scar tissue on their eyes and got noses like saddles. I go to conventions of old fighters like me and I see the scar tissue and all them flat noses and it's beautiful. ... They talk like me, like they got rocks in their throats. Beautiful!
You've got to be willing to look at a guy's face and say I will kill you if I have to. You've got to be willing to look in his face and say that I will stab you, I will hurt you and you can't talk the game, you've got to really act and do the game. Prison is a thing where talking gets you killed. What gets you respect is you do. The guy that you fear is a guy that says nothing.