I was a chameleon, the woman men wanted me to be.
Me, as a person, I grow. I'm like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.
I'm a lover of all sorts of music, which makes me a chameleon when it comes to performing anything, whether it's opera or whatever. As long as it's good and it feels good, I'm going to cling to it.
I can only be me. I have a hard time being a chameleon as a singer.
If you look at my iPod, I've got so much different music. I think that it kind of describes me as a person, just being a chameleon to whatever particular environment that I'm in.
Singing is an incredible expression and something that is important to me, but where I feel comfortable with how much I reveal about myself is acting. I enjoy the characters, the costumes, the wigs and just being a chameleon.
It's like people call me a rock star or this or that. And I go, 'Don't call me that. I don't think of myself in those terms. If you have to call me anything, call me a chameleon.
When I had my cancer, the chemotherapy took my hair away. So then I decided I would just keep it short, and this is my signature now. The great thing about it is that I am a bit of a chameleon, so you can put a wig on me and I look totally different.
When I won the Golden Gloves in 1960, that made me realize I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.
People try to live vicariously through fighters, but it's one-on-one; it's primal. There's no other feeling like it. The problem for me was accepting it - that nothing compares to being champ.
People could see in me who I am now, an Olympic champ, the best in the world.
I want to defend my throne. All my fans know. They love me. I want to defend this; I want to be a champ and keep defending. Come try to take over my village.
In my prime, I was the ruler. Simple as that. I understand there's a lot of great fighters who've followed me already since I was the champ - and I hope there's another who comes along does even better because want to see that - but I haven't seen anyone do what I did yet.
Buying sports cars, going to expensive nightclubs, spraying people with champagne and things like that - what I learnt is that it wasn't for me, and, in fact, I feel pretty empty after doing that.
I'm a gypsy: no education, no schooling, nothing. I don't care what people think of me. I don't care about being a hero, a role model, a champion.
I set out in the beginning to be the heavyweight champion of the world. From a very young age, I was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Nothing else was a problem to me. That's what I'll finish doing.
To me, 'Chopped' is a great platform for championing great causes.
What shocks me is people who have no expertise championing a view that runs counter to the mainstream scientific consensus.
Venus told me the other day that champions don't get nervous in tight situations. That really helped me a lot. I decided I shouldn't get nervous and just do the best I can.
The truth is that I don't have a favourite goal. I remember important goals more than I do favourite goals, like goals in the Champions League where I had the opportunity to have scored in both finals I have played in. Finals in the World Cup or Copa del Rey are the ones that have stayed with me for longer or that I remember more.
