Quotes from Naseem Hamed

Amir Khan is Amir Khan. He's a great fighter; he's got great attributes. But Prince Naseem brought something completely different to any other fighter in the whole world.

From the age of seven, I was destined to be a legend, to be the world's most popular fighter.

Great fighters get beat, and great fighters come back.

I do think I retired too soon. I just felt at that particular time in 2002, after winning a fifth world title belt, why not be one of the smart ones in boxing and get out.

I'm not saying I'm Mr Goody Two Shoes. I'm not. But if you try to rough me up, I'm going to body-slam you. I'm going to do everything I have to do psychologically to tell you that you are not stronger than me.

I am not into guys who powder-puff punch and run round the ring for 12 rounds. I'm into guys that want to shock the world with devastating power.

When I was fighting, there was no boxing in Saudi Arabia because it was forbidden.

No, I've never been frightened before a fight.

I love it when fighters are textbook.

I fall back on my faith; whatever happens, whatever goes wrong in your life, Muslims thank God because it could have gone worse.

There were a lot of fighters who were better than me that got knocked out and stopped because they stayed in the game too long. That never happened to me. I don't know that feeling. I thank God so much that that didn't happen to me.

There's no bigger fight on the planet than Prince Naseem and Marco Antonio Barrera. What's bigger than that? This will be the greatest fight in the history of the featherweight division.

Who do you know, who could come out on a flying carpet? P. Diddy standing at the bottom, come out like a concert, dancing, oozing confidence, and then get in and take somebody out? Come on, do you know anybody in the history of the sport that did what Prince Naseem did? I ain't trying to brag, but I was bloody good at it.

As a fighter, I recognise that the one thing we fight for is prizes. The one thing that motivates us is money. A lot of fighters do come back because of money. The biggest spur they have is financial, and thank God my finances were secure, and I didn't need to come back for that reason.

It sounds so early - retiring at 28. But I don't feel it's that early for me. If you're blessed enough and you're gifted and you're lucky enough, and you've got a fortunate career, then you can take that step back. I'm just happy that I did it.

Boxing has lost its glamour and excitement. I'm going to bring it back.

With age, you become more humble, more wise.

I am excited by and impressed with Anthony Joshua, but Anthony has a long way to go. At first, I thought Anthony was similar to a Frank Bruno figure, but after a few fights, I realised he's nothing like Frank Bruno. He's very athletic.

It doesn't mean much to me if I'm behind or not in a fight; the fact is that I hold these guns in my right and left hands.

I could never say that fear really gets to me. I'm not one of those fighters like Nigel Benn who says, 'I thrive on fear.' I walk through fear.

That's what a true professional is - a true world champion, so to everybody out there listening, especially the fighters that want to fight me... they'll get knocked out, sparko.

Being a fighter is no joke. Year in and year out. Especially as a world champion. All eyes are on you, and you can't go where you want, eat what you want.

When you become a world champion and you defend your title for five or six years, and you have fifteen defences of your title, and you round up most of the other belts - and you feel you're the best of your generation at the time - nobody can take that away from you.

I made a prediction when I was 11 that I would be world champion by the time I was 21, and I did it.