Quotes from Joe Frazier

I wasn't a big guy. People thought the big guys would eat me up. But it was the other way around. I loved to fight bigger guys.

It was all about the ring. That's where you got your brains shook and the money took.

Since I was a boy of five or six, I had it in my mind I would be a world boxing champion.

Champions aren't made in the ring, they are merely recognized there. What you cheat on in the early light of morning will show up in the ring under the bright lights.

If you cheat in the dark of the morning, you'll get found in the bright lights of the night.

I hated Ali. God might not like me talking that way, but its in my heart.

If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad because I did all I could. There was nothing more to do.

When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I'm out there to win.

Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.

I know my destiny. I was born into animosity, bigotry and hatred. We had water for white folks, and water for coloured folks. White lines, black lines. I came from Beaufort in South Carolina, and it was tougher than Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

There's one thing I don't ever think about: losing ... Instead, I think about how I'm going to win, and how I can do it the quickest way.

His mouth made him feel like he was gonna win. Not his hands, I had my hand. He had his lips.

When I go out there, I have no pity on my brother. I am out there to win.

I don't mind people want to think Muhammad is the greatest fighter around. Everybody wants to make him great because of his mouth, that he was the best. He was good, but that doesn't make him great. I proved that.

I couldn't go to school with whites. Now there are schools that educate everyone.

I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you.

Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book.

When I was a boy, I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand, so I'd have to use my left.

You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you're down to your reflexes - that means your [preparation:]. That's where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you're going to get found out now, under the bright lights.

Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people.

I believe in doing a job of work, not talking about it. I don't think a man has to go around shouting and play-acting to prove he is something. And a real man don't go around putting other guys down, trampling their feelings in the dirt, making out they're nothing

When I was a boy, I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand, so I'd have to use my left.

Fightin' George Foreman is like being in the street with an eighteen-wheeler comin' at you.

When you work for me, you don't say good things about Ali.