I never want to be seen in my boxer shorts ever again.
When you’re a boxer, there is a lot of downtime and long periods of inactivity.
I never had a dream to be a boxer.
Everybody kept saying I wasn’t going to get any fights. And they wouldn’t put me on TV and they don’t respect women’s boxing. But I also turned professional with two Olympic gold medals and that’s something that no other American boxer has ever done. With that, I’ve been getting a lot of respect.
I started boxing when I was eight. Me and my brother Rafael started boxing in amateur tournaments when I was 13. My father was an ex-pro boxer.
It takes a certain type of man to become a boxer, to fight for a living. To be able to have the confidence to hit another man, to control your fears. You must overcome the psychical aspect and believe in the art, the discipline of the sport. You need to study. You need to be smart.
I wanted to play football or be a boxer, but my dad didn’t want that because of all the impact. But in 1992 I was watching short track, and it was obscure, but they looked like superheroes in their tight outfits, and I thought it was amazing. I wanted to do that. I made the national team at 14.
Khan was one of the biggest fights of my career and also one of the toughest in my life. He’s a very good boxer.
It’s like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn’t be a boxer, so I quit.
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.
Many MMA fighters have tried boxing before, even just sparring for a few rounds, but no boxer has done MMA rounds. There’s just no way for them to do that.
My father was an army champion boxer… in the British army. And so he loved boxing and talked it up as a sport. But then when my brother and I were beating the crap out of each other, he was always trying to tone it down. But I am a fan of boxing.
In the United States in the 20th century, every major event that America was going through, there was a boxer who seemed to symbolically represent it, from slavery to the Vietnam War to the Depression – all the way along, you just seemed to have boxers that carried the narrative.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two brothers who carried out the marathon bombing, was a non-practicing Muslim who only became an Islamist militant once his dreams of becoming an Olympic boxer faded. At the time of the attack, he was unemployed.
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.
I would be more wary of boxing a pretty boxer than I would one that looks like they have been bashed up a bit because the pretty boxer obviously doesn’t get hit – so that means they must be quite good!
I never ran with my dad. He was old-school. He had a whole different idea of training. He ran in steel-toed boots! But, of course, he’s proud of me and proud of the boxer that I became.
It’s like I say all the time, it’s the heavyweight division. It doesn’t matter if the guys a black belt or if he’s a world-class boxer. We still have a 50-50 chance.
Until this movie I have played a boxer, a cowboy, a knight, a prince, an elf and a pirate. I am so glad to have done all of that already, and am ready for this phase of my career.
There was a time when guys just had a specialty, like boxer or wrestler or jiujitsu guy. Then came guys who could blend taking you down with also being able to kick your head off.
Winning the first championship is a goal for any boxer, and it means a lot to reach it.
Collyhurst and Moston was where I learned about professionalism. I’d never had a job prior to walking in the gym, and I witnessed the hard work that went into being a boxer.
Nobody really knows for sure how the Boxer Rebellion started. It began among the poor, and the history of the poor is rarely written down.
When I was 14, I told my careers adviser that I was going to be a world champion boxer. Of course she laughed.
It’s a punishment game… only two boxers get in the ring. So when we get in the ring and we’re not angry, then you’re not a real boxer.
I had been in the gym training for many, many years, but I definitely stepped it up when it was time to get into shape to play ‘Lights’. I began trying to live the life of a boxer, and that means everything that you would expect.
I find I work best as a reactor, trying to portray something on a screen musically. If I were a boxer, I’d be a counter-puncher.
Barbara Boxer is the most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today. I know that because I’ve had the unpleasant experience of having to serve with her.
If Mayweather wants to come over and fight in the UFC, then do it. It’s hardcore here, though. I don’t think it’ll be a stroll in the park. Granted, he’s the best boxer ever seen, just about.
You know if you want to be a boxer the first time you get hit on the nose.
