Interesting Quotes from Nigel Benn's book..

"John always said my reputation grew at a startling speed and that I was feared in the ring, particularly when we visited Berlin to fight. I knocked my first opponent through the middle rope and crashing onto the floor in 17 seconds. Then my second opponent broke his arm on the top of my head and the elbow split through the skin at an angle. Then I broke my left wrist when I knocked out my third opponent, it was a loud break. Nobody could look me in the eye. We went back there a few months later and none of them would fight me, they were too scared." "It's summertime 1986 and I'm sparring with Roberto Duran at the Fifth Street gym in Miami. A lot of boxing people there seemed to be looking amazed, commenting on my power, speed and accuracy they said it was as impressive as anything they had seen from Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and George Foreman. When you're coming up the ranks, that's what you want to hear!" "On another night in Vegas, we met Tyson. I was with Ray and Ambrose in a black club. Tyson was sitting alone but recognised me from the televison. He saw my fights with Logan and Quinones and said he admired my style. 'Oi, Benn' so I look round and there's Mike Tyson waving me towards him with his finger. 'Alright, Mike', he said 'Yeah, your doing good, your ferocious man!', 'Thanks, Mike!'. Ray asked him if he could have a photograph taken with him and he declined saying he didn't have photos done with white guys. 'They're pussies,' he told him. Ray said he ought to feel his stomach before making statements like that. He took it as an invitation to test his muscles and hit him. I think it really hurt but he was only playing around. Great guy." "I'll fight Mike Tyson all day long, I don't care. That kind of pain goes. But the pain a woman inflicts when she twists the knife lasts for years." On Gerald McClellan fight "He was being described as the most ferocious fighter to ever hit our shores, and I couldn't wait to get out there and have a good scrap with him." "I felt all the ligaments in the side of my neck rip, and I went out of the ring!" "He hit me with a body shot in round three, I swear that I was almost on my feet. He hit me so hard with this body shot in round three that I was almost on queer street. Sick." "When McClellan knocked me out of the ring, I just thought 'Hes not beating me, no way. I don't care how hard he hits, I've been hit with everything, pickaxes, baseball bats so what? Let's see how he feels when I'm hitting him...'" "McClellan, pound for pound the best puncher in the world, the Yank who beat up Roy Jones as an amateur, was on the floor, and what made me proudest of all was this: it was a British man who'd done it"