Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.
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 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.
I'm a competitor and a very proud man. If a guy beats me once, he'll have to do it again to make me believe him.
I saw Todd Bridges talk about being abused on Oprah. Something that he said, or an expression that he made that gave me that little boost I needed to be open about it and to talk about it as transparently as I did. When I told my wife, she couldn't believe it. She was petrified, because it's such a no-no, taboo, a hands-off subject. But I'd have to say hearing Todd Bridges on Oprah was my watershed moment.
I've never believed in tying myself up in a long-range contract, and I've been very outspoken on that subject.
I want to be great, something special.
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
Ali's belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it's become my own philosophy
I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.
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.
I'm so opposite of my profession. No one - particularly my mother and father - ever thought I was going to be a boxer because I always felt that football and baseball were too dangerous. I was just such a quiet kid.
When I'm not in training. I'll walk around the streets at 153, but it's not solid; it's my socializing weight.
I wanted to be like Bruce Jenner.
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.
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.
A fighter never knows when it's the last bell. He doesn't want to face that.
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.
You just don't heal that easy unless you're young.
I'm not religious, but I believe that what I have is a gift, and I respect it and live up to it.
I learned that I had character defects, that I was allergic to alcohol and drugs, and that I had an obsession with all the bad stuff. But thank God that I woke and that I had good people around me to support me. There's not much more I can say about it. You have to want to be a better person.
Tommy Hearns seemed like an indestructible machine, so to beat him, I think that was my defining moment, the pinnacle.
I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me.
I'm a free agent. I haven't allowed any promoters to have exclusive options on my fight. I don't need a promoter.
I only wish that I had had the courage and the knowledge to have gotten that out of my system, out of my mind or my heart years earlier. But there is no book, there is no manual to tell you how to deal with sexual abuse.
