Quotes from Gerry Cooney

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.

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.

The past is yesterday. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

If I keep thinking about yesterday, tomorrow might never come.

I spent a lot of time dwelling on yesterday, and it did me no good.

I'm a happy guy. I just want to see people laugh and smile.

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.

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 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.

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.

Most fighters, when they're finished, boxing turns its back on them.

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.

I was a left hooker, and I loved hooking. I also really liked to jab and mix it up right away.

I see Mike Tyson as too strong for Spinks.

When somebody used to compliment me, I'd spend 10 minutes trying to talk them out of it.

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.

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.

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.

You go through pain. You feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable until you change. I acquired a different outlook.

I want to win. For myself first. And for all those people who stuck with me and understood.

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.

Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.

When you bottom out, you have to stand up and get going again.

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.