This kid [Janks Morton, Jr.] was so special, although he's not a kid anymore, obviously, but he was there from day one of my rise through boxing. You know how the years go by and then, when you stop to reflect, you realize that someone was a part of your whole evolution as an individual? That's what I share with Junior.
Inactivity is the biggest sin in boxing.
You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win.
Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There's nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring.
I consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We've all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up.
Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.
You don't play boxing. You really don't. You play golf, you play tennis, but you don't play boxing.
I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me.
Bruce Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to go beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want the public to see a knockout in the making.
If I hadn't had the talent, the networks wouldn't have televised my fights. No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues
Boxing was the only career where I wouldn't have to start out at the bottom. I had a good resume.
I think I've become one of the best finishers in boxing; if I hurt a guy, I normally take him out.
It is wonderful. It truly is. It is the only thing that is real! It's you against me, it's challenging another guy's manhood. With gloves. Words cannot describe that feeling of being a man, of being a gladiator, of being a warrior. It's irreplaceable.
Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it's better to give than to receive.
I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural. From that moment I became so embedded in boxing. I found a friend in boxing.
Boxing's a poor man's sport. We can't afford to play golf or tennis. It is what it is. It's kept so many kids off the street. It kept me off the street.
I found boxing when I was 14 years old. I went down to the gym because my brother, who used to beat me up all the time, introduced me to boxing. I found boxing to be a sport that I felt safe in because I controlled what was in those four squares.
When I was 15 or 16 and I started climbing up the ladder of success in amateur boxing, a reporter asked me, "What do you want to be?" I think he was expecting me to say, "A champion." I said, "I want to be special." I don't know why I said that, but I didn't just want to be a fighter. I wanted to have an impact with people, particularly kids.
It's different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman, and that takes something away from it.
I'm not in favor of that [mandating protective headgear ] because we learn as amateurs how to protect ourselves. And that's why there's a third man in the ring, the referee. And that's why there has to be a very strong boxing commission that doesn't allow guys in the ring who don't belong there.
Before the start of the '76 Olympics, I'd had 160 amateur fights. I won 155 and lost five
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