When I step into the ring with someone, this has got to be their vacation spot, but my home turf. So I go the opposite side seven rounds doing the same thing. Skipping, skipping, skipping. Then I go seven rounds going both ways. Skip to the left, skip to the right.
When I was a boxer, I wanted to be champion of the world, not the richest man in the world.
It would be hard to throw a punch to someone who wasn't a boxer, who wasn't in the ring, and who didn't have on a pair of boxing gloves and who hadn't been training.
I think that every boxer should understand he's on the pedestal for a short span. It's best that you use boxing and don't let boxing use you. Use boxing to sell, because people are selling you through your boxing career, so you have to learn to sell yourself, and you'll never starve.
I just don't know how I was able to be a boxer in the first place without believing God.
All of a sudden, one day, you're this boxer that everybody like, or you're this guy that people pass on the highway and wave at. The next day, you're this guy that everybody want to touch - be in touch with you. Then you think that this is the answer to all things.
We'd always said boxers shouldn't lift weights. Now I realize some champion boxer started that rumor. I noticed if I did weights a couple of times a week, I would be able to hit that jab a lot longer. After sparring, everybody's gone, and I sneak into the weight room. Spend 40 minutes in there lifting weights.
When it gets to the part in life where you're more afraid of what your wife is going to do to you than if you box, say, Mike Tyson, you've got to get a new profession. You don't get to be a family. I know why boxers never quit, some of them. They don't have wives.
I hope to have one more boxing match at the age of 55. Given that demographic at the age of 55 to 65, you've got to make a statement with your life. Otherwise, you are just existing.
Oh, there's nothing more dangerous in life at getting hurt at than love itself. People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match.
People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match.
We all think we've got one more boxing match in us, and that, probably, will be the downfall of Floyd Mayweather, George Foreman, Manny Pacquiao. We'll overstay our welcome.
I'm never without my dog. They would be in every corner of the house, and my wife will not allow me to have any more than that. But I have lots of dogs. I love the dogs. I breed them. I always have a puppy coming. And I show dogs. I show German shepherds.
Anytime I can sneak in a moment to fish and ride horses, I'm a happy camper.
Growing up poor, I didn't even have a lunch to take to school. Lunch was 26 cents, and we didn't even know what 26 cents looked like. I didn't love school because I wanted to disguise that I was poorer than everybody else.
You don't know what it is to be heavyweight champ of the world until you become the heavyweight champ of the world.
I wanted to be champ of the world, but I kept hoping something would happen to Frazier. I didn't want to fight him. Nobody wanted to fight Joe Frazier.
If you learn to sell, it's worth more than a degree. It's worth more than the heavyweight championship of the world. It's even more important than having a million dollars in the bank. Learn to sell, and you'll never starve.
But boxing was my profession. I had to go back the second time because I was broke and I couldn't just go and get a college degree and earn it. I had too many bills, too many families.
After you work out, you have your dog with you. There's no better companion. You've got to have a friend. I didn't like opponents who had dogs with them. Because you know they had a little edge. They have a friend.
