Boxer quotes thread

[JAB5239]

'Benitez gave me my introduction to psychological warfare. Watch a tape sometime of the stare-down before that fight. I'm literally chomping at the bit, about to bite clean through my mouthpiece, and he's just standing there, calmly staring at me. I learned from Benitez, and later Duran, the importance of being relaxed at the start of the fight.'
- Sugar Ray Leonard

[JAB5239]

'No one can talk about dirty fighting better than a dirty fighter. The one way not to become a great fighter is to be a dirty one. You can't point to any champion in the history of the game and say he was a dirty fighter. Dirtiness and championships simply can't be mixed.'
- Gene Tunney

[JAB5239]

'Boxing has been the most difficult thing I've ever done. The biggest challenge in my life. I was a boxer. That was hard. Everything else is pretty easy.'
- George Foreman

[JAB5239]

'Everyone in life should have a goal, and they should try and complete it. And if you don't reach it, keep trying. Never give up. By trying, the person wins'
- Ken Norton

[JAB5239]

'I got more beatings at home than I got on the streets. My parents had the typical Jewish attitude towards fights, bloody noses and skull fractures. Mom didn't like to see me come in late for meat and potatoes with bleeding scratches. So I got it but good. And I kept right on battling those Italian kids, and a lot of the Jewish ones, too. The bitterness and hatred inside me made me a much better fighter. Every opponent in a street fight seemed to remind me of Pa's murderers and so I seemed to find extra strength in fighting them, or kicking them in the groin and making them scream in agony.'
- Barney Ross

[JAB5239]

'My brother liked to fight on the streets, and he used to say to me, 'Fight that Kid.' And I would cry because I didn't want to. I didn't like to fight on the street because I was nervous and there were no rules. I was more confident in my boxing ability than my street fighting ability.'
- Marco Antonio Barrera

[JAB5239]

'Throughout my life, each setback prepared me for a greater triumph.'
- Sugar Ray Robinson

[JAB5239]

'Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.'
- Joe Frazier

[JAB5239]

'One of the things that bothers me most, is that very few people understand what it means to be a fighter. I hate it when I hear someone say, 'That fighter doesn't have any guts.' I hate that, it really ticks me off. I don't care if you're a World Champion six times over or a four round fighter who just got knocked out in thirty seconds of your first professional fight. To step inside that ring, you have to have guts.'

- Oscar De La Hoya

[JAB5239]

'There is no doubt that man is a competitive animal and there is no place where this fact is more obvious than in the ring. There is no second place. Either you win or you lose. When they call you a champion, it's because you don't lose. To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body.'
- Rocky Marciano