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Nigel Benn in Swindon UK
Is it good memories reminiscing about your boxing days?
I don't reminisce about it. They aren't good memories and I wouldn't do it over again. I'm just pleased I pleased so many fans who followed my career. I wasn't happy in myself doing it, but the good thing about it is that I pleased others in what I did and because I am Nigel Benn the former two-time world champion they're more likely, you know, people, when I talk about the Lord and what he's done for me and my life, you know....
So you don't miss boxing one bit?
Even before I found God, no. I had a full career. From the time I put on a pair of boxing gloves, my career just went up. I was 18 when I started. It was rock-and-roll by my mid-20s, still a young lad, still a young lad. It was still rock-and-roll 10 years later, 10 years ago. That life is gone now.. hurting people and causing destruction to myself and others in and out of the ring. I had a full career, I didn't wait around. You had Doug De Witt, Iran Barkley.. they'd been in with all the top Americans and not been stopped, and I went and I stopped them in their hometowns. Robbie Sims had been everywhere and been in with everyone and nobody ever knocked him out, and I knocked him out. And to win the WBC Title and defend it nine times quicker than anyone in history, that is still never broken in the Guinness Book of World Records.. it was way beyond my wildest dreams what my body, my flesh was able to accomplish. And I was burning the candle at both ends, I really was, I really was. It's not like boxing contained me you see.
What are your advises to the younger generation of boxers today?
If you want to do well in boxing, keep your feet planted firmly on the ground and stay away from women, man. Stay away from those women! Don't make the same mistakes I did, my head wasn't in the game a lot of the time because of stuff going on in my life at the time. Say a year before I lost to Michael Watson, that was coming, that was coming.. Too distracted.. Say between the Doug De Witt and Gerald McClellan fights in my career, inbetween, my head wasn't there in the game, there was so much going on.. But apart from those times all I wanted to be was number one, just wanted to be number one.. I believed I was number one! But other times I didn't have that confidence or that desire and maybe I lost my best years, I don't know. So David Haye, Amir Khan. James DeGale.. we don't know how good he's going to be. But these guys, you know, I'd say just learn from my mistakes and keep your feet planted and you can do well.
What made you decide to go away and live in a foreign country, was it the sun that attracted you, or...
Yeah I need a tan, don't I! (laughs) No, it was God. I would never have moved to Majorca, so it must've been the Lord who moved me, through my wife. I lived in Miami for years, I lived in LA for years, I was world champion and living the high life.. and then I retired and I was a DJ in the clubs and on the so-called London gangster scenes as I had been.. you know, I would never of moved to Majorca on my own initiative, so it was the man upstairs intervening for sure, I know that now.
How important is your faith to you, compared to your fame?
Everything, absolutely everything. My faith is everything, everything. We're talking night and day. If I can use my fame for a better cause then that's what I'm doing, and it is what I'm doing. You go full circle and you correct the wrong, we come into this world with nothing and we go out of this world with nothing.. material means nothing, it really means nothing. It's all about the higher power and it's all about love, God's love. God's word means more to me than anything, infinitely more than winning the world title. There is no comparison whatsoever, because it says in His word, Mark 8:36, 'Does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?', I sacrificed everything for fame and so many times I had the world at my feet, and was it worth it? I tried to end my life, that speaks for itself. Without God stepping in through a praying wife, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now because I'm sure I wouldn't even be alive, again that speaks for itself. So my final message always is that it's all about God and His word.
Is it good memories reminiscing about your boxing days?
I don't reminisce about it. They aren't good memories and I wouldn't do it over again. I'm just pleased I pleased so many fans who followed my career. I wasn't happy in myself doing it, but the good thing about it is that I pleased others in what I did and because I am Nigel Benn the former two-time world champion they're more likely, you know, people, when I talk about the Lord and what he's done for me and my life, you know....
So you don't miss boxing one bit?
Even before I found God, no. I had a full career. From the time I put on a pair of boxing gloves, my career just went up. I was 18 when I started. It was rock-and-roll by my mid-20s, still a young lad, still a young lad. It was still rock-and-roll 10 years later, 10 years ago. That life is gone now.. hurting people and causing destruction to myself and others in and out of the ring. I had a full career, I didn't wait around. You had Doug De Witt, Iran Barkley.. they'd been in with all the top Americans and not been stopped, and I went and I stopped them in their hometowns. Robbie Sims had been everywhere and been in with everyone and nobody ever knocked him out, and I knocked him out. And to win the WBC Title and defend it nine times quicker than anyone in history, that is still never broken in the Guinness Book of World Records.. it was way beyond my wildest dreams what my body, my flesh was able to accomplish. And I was burning the candle at both ends, I really was, I really was. It's not like boxing contained me you see.
What are your advises to the younger generation of boxers today?
If you want to do well in boxing, keep your feet planted firmly on the ground and stay away from women, man. Stay away from those women! Don't make the same mistakes I did, my head wasn't in the game a lot of the time because of stuff going on in my life at the time. Say a year before I lost to Michael Watson, that was coming, that was coming.. Too distracted.. Say between the Doug De Witt and Gerald McClellan fights in my career, inbetween, my head wasn't there in the game, there was so much going on.. But apart from those times all I wanted to be was number one, just wanted to be number one.. I believed I was number one! But other times I didn't have that confidence or that desire and maybe I lost my best years, I don't know. So David Haye, Amir Khan. James DeGale.. we don't know how good he's going to be. But these guys, you know, I'd say just learn from my mistakes and keep your feet planted and you can do well.
What made you decide to go away and live in a foreign country, was it the sun that attracted you, or...
Yeah I need a tan, don't I! (laughs) No, it was God. I would never have moved to Majorca, so it must've been the Lord who moved me, through my wife. I lived in Miami for years, I lived in LA for years, I was world champion and living the high life.. and then I retired and I was a DJ in the clubs and on the so-called London gangster scenes as I had been.. you know, I would never of moved to Majorca on my own initiative, so it was the man upstairs intervening for sure, I know that now.
How important is your faith to you, compared to your fame?
Everything, absolutely everything. My faith is everything, everything. We're talking night and day. If I can use my fame for a better cause then that's what I'm doing, and it is what I'm doing. You go full circle and you correct the wrong, we come into this world with nothing and we go out of this world with nothing.. material means nothing, it really means nothing. It's all about the higher power and it's all about love, God's love. God's word means more to me than anything, infinitely more than winning the world title. There is no comparison whatsoever, because it says in His word, Mark 8:36, 'Does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?', I sacrificed everything for fame and so many times I had the world at my feet, and was it worth it? I tried to end my life, that speaks for itself. Without God stepping in through a praying wife, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now because I'm sure I wouldn't even be alive, again that speaks for itself. So my final message always is that it's all about God and His word.
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