Quotes from Anthony Yarde

Stop being childish. Use your time better - better yourself. Read a book, or do a workout exercise on YouTube.

I sometimes look on YouTube and see people label videos 'Anthony Yarde sparring his trainer Ade' but that is not sparring, that's just practice. We practice getting attacked, countering and attacking your opponent back, in intelligent ways.

My first boxing experience came at around 14. There was always confrontation in the area I grew up in. My mentality, I'll be honest, was if someone tries it with me, I want to be able to knock them out.

I have learned in boxing to separate emotion from your job and the time in the ring. When it comes to anything that causes an emotional trigger I try to clear my head.

I don't want to blow my own trumpet but the aim of the game is to hit and not get hit and that is what I am doing.

I believe some things are labelled impossible until they are done.

I wasn't good at football when I was young but I made myself get good at football because of my mentality.

100 percent, I'm a natural athlete. From when I was younger, I played so many different sports and I've got a competitive mindset.

One day guns were pulled on us by older guys. My friend had gone to sell his moped and they took the moped, my friend's phone and some money. But all he got from my pocket was a tub of Vaseline. I remember him saying, 'Oh, he's a sweet boy' and throwing my Vaseline on the floor.

I study Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr and Sugar Ray Leonard.

I thought the Mike Tyson story was beautiful and it drew me in. He was bullied, a small kid who started knocking out giants.

I wanted to look like Mike Tyson. But then I started to realize, in a twelve round fight, you must be patient.

Sparring with southpaws have been different but nothing to worry me.

When I first went into a boxing gym I watched Kovalev fight on TV and now my name is spoken about in the same light as him, now I'm fighting him.

Sometimes you found yourself in conflict or within an area where there's conflict. Some days you just find yourself in danger. Sometimes these things mould you and that's what I mean about hostile environments.

Everyone has their own methods, when Muhammad Ali was coming through I am sure people said he leaned back too far, had his chin too high and dropped his hands too low. I am not comparing myself Ali, just showing that people have different methods that work for them.

In year seven and eight I was very small, but I was muscular. Year nine, ten and eleven I got massive. I was in the gym every day, even at lunchtime and break times. I was thinking about boxing at that time but didn't think I would actually do it.

Floyd Mayweather said it, perfect boxing career, undefeated, but he says that in life there's balance. He might have the perfect boxing career, but elsewhere there's loss.

People talk about world title offers, but boxing is not a sprint, it's a marathon.

So I was in football, athletics doing shot put and sprinting, and rugby all at the same time. Ultimately, I didn't know how serious you had to take one of them and I was just a kid wanting to do everything at once.

I have been very busy having so many fights since I turned pro. To have 13 in little more than two years is a lot by modern standards.

I'm confident and when you have power like me, it relaxes your nerves.

My dreams are to unify the world light-heavyweight titles like Roy Jones did and then at cruiserweight before then possibly the heavyweight division.

I could fight for a world title and win it, but it is about getting to that stage and staying there.