Quotes About Boxing

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

Twenty years I've been fighting Ali, and I still want to take him apart piece by piece and send him back to Jesus.

In the 1950s, when I was hanging around Sullivan's Gym and the Gramercy Gym, there were fixed fights. Mob guys like Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo had taken over the sport; one lightweight champion loaned his title to others at least twice; the welterweight division was a slag heap.

As a white fighter, you get twice as much criticism.

It's a big move from the 'Tough Man' circuit to professional boxing. When I turned pro, I had to play catch-up and was fighting almost twice a month until I had more than 20 fights under my belt.

A fighter never knows when it's the last bell. He doesn't want to face that.

People are still crying out for Lennox Lewis. They still want to see Lennox Lewis. That motivated me. I am still young. I have a couple fights left in me.

There's no way I would want to hurt him or bust him up. That's why, for the sake of the family as well as himself, I will take him out in the opening round.

My trainer don't tell me nothing between rounds. I don't allow him to. I fight the fight. All I want to know is did I win the round. It's too late for advice.

I had my style of moving and dancing and whatever I do. What you have to do, is take all the fighters you want and me and rank me where you want. I can't tell you.

Why are they picking on boxing? It's because the black men are so superior in boxing that they want to stop it. Well, the black man's so hungry he's got to fight.

If he wants to box we'll box. If he wants to brawl we'll brawl.

When I was growing up, there was always somebody who wanted to pick a fight with me. I'd say, I'm not a famous boxer, my father is. If you want to fight somebody, go fight my Dad.

My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant.

There is so much to learn from boxing, you can never have learnt everything; anybody who says they know it all is lying. You can't - there is always something new to learn.

To me, it's a common thing to go somewhere and box there.

Daniel Jacobs is a big name over in America, which is somewhere obviously I want to get my name bigger, so there are potential big fights out there for me.

I grew up with an impatience with the anti-scientific. So I'm a bit miffed with our current love affair with all things Eastern. If I sneeze on the set, 40 people hand me echinacea. But I'd no sooner take that than eat a pencil. Maybe that's why I took up boxing. It's my response to men in white pajamas feeling each other's chi.

Sometimes big boxing matches should take place on the cobbles. That's really where Mikkel Kessler and me ought to have sorted it out.

My goal in boxing was to be Southern Area champion, might have a shot at the British, might own my own terraced house like my dad. That was my vision.

The art of boxing is seeing spaces and being able to take shots. The hitting and being hit have to become one. Your reactions have to be so in the moment. There's no time to think.

It's like a movie, I thought, like a fucking movie. It seemed funny to me. It felt as if we were on camera. I liked it. It was better than the racetrack, it was better than the boxing matches. We kept drinking.

There was something to be learned about writing from watching boxing matches or going to the racetrack. The message wasn't clear but it helped me. That was the important part: the message wasn't clear. It was wordless, like a house burning, or an earthquake or a flood, or a woman getting out of a car, showing her legs. I didn't know what other writers needed; I didn't care, I couldn't read them anyway. I was locked into my own habits

Before I turned professional I used to do carpet fitting for my dad. I wasn't much good, it's a miracle I've still got 10 fingers.