Top 33 Roy Jones Jr. Quotes

Every day, it was the same: school, homework, farm work, training. Getting hurt or dying might’ve been better than the life I was living.

I give my roosters the best of food. I give them the best of care. I give them everything they want before I ask them to sacrifice. Get a rooster comfortable, and he’ll fight his ass off. That’s all I ask of HBO. They just can’t see that.

With me, I come in the ring and start thinking right away. My thought process is just to put a guy down. I’m like a technician and learn to break it all down – from head to toe.

I’ve tried to stick with the same people from when my career started to today. The more people you add around you, the more distractions you have, and that’s the last thing I need.

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.

I don’t care about no boxing legacy. I don’t care where they put me on the list of all-time greats – let them put me at the bottom.

Kids always used to come up and ask me if I ever fought Mike Tyson, and I used to tell them that we couldn’t because we were in different weight classes.

I’m pretty good at video games, but I’m the champ when it comes to pinball, and that’s just because it’s old-fashion like I am. I can’t get enough of pinball.

Andre Ward got the chance to fight Sergey Kovalev twice. Triple G and Canelo are fighting again. People are getting paid to play king of the hill again.

Boxing has been my life, and it is my life. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.

Once you put that muscle on, it’s hard to go back down. Most guys, when they put that muscle on, they just stay big. To go back down while at the same time trying to maintain that punching power, it’s very tough.

If God truly wanted me to stop, all He’d have to do is have one doctor at the Mayo Clinic find something wrong with my brain. Just one little CAT scan showing any sign of trauma or damage, and I’d be done.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds. None of us do. We got to wait and see what God has planned.

I got real bored in ’96. Wasn’t nobody to fight. Nothing to look forward to. That’s when I started playing basketball again. Had I not started playing basketball, my boxing career would have failed. But I went from a sport where nobody could touch me to another where I couldn’t touch nobody.

Mayweather was TBE – The Best Ever – at making money, but look at his highlights and look at mine. You can’t pretend it’s the same.

Some of those guys show a lot of promise, especially Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Even the kid Joseph Parker, who Joshua is about to fight, shows a lot of promise. I’m looking forward to some really exciting fights in the heavyweight division to come.

One thing I learned from the ’88 Olympics: It’s not a question of if they can screw you over: it’s a question of if they will. It’s not the gold medal they took away from me. The medal doesn’t mean anything. It’s that they said I lost. That experience is well and alive in my mind.

Fishing keeps you alive, gives you time away – to enjoy God, the creations that He made. Because God made you.

After my arrival in Russia, I saw that there is a large community of boxers. I also felt appreciated in Russia. Maybe even a lot more than I was valued and appreciated in my own country.

I don’t really give in to the critics because critics are always going to criticize, and what have they done? A person who has never done nothing can’t really care nothing about doing something. So as far as the critics, I don’t care what they think. I don’t have time to give to critics.

The more irrational you make your opponent, the more control you have over him in the ring.

I was so scared of my father. He’d pull up in his truck and start looking for something I’d done wrong. There was no escape, no excuse, no way out of nothing.

Nobody in history has won all the titles I’ve won and the cruiserweight title. I’d be the only man in history. That’s when you die and go to Heaven, and God can look at you and know you did everything with the gifts he gave you.

If I fought like I was looking for a place in history, it would ruin me as a person. I don’t think history is worth selling my soul.

I never stop. I’ll never truly retire, because my mind is always on go.

I had more energy at 25 and did more jiving around. People got to understand that when you’re not so interested in something, you’re not gonna do it to the best of your ability. I used to get excited working the crowd, but no more.

I never wanted my kids to feel about me the way I felt about him.

You can’t pretend there has ever been anyone come close to doing what I did. Nobody you could name could touch me, and I’m talking about nobody who’s around now, nobody who was around in my prime, and nobody who was around any time you can mention outta your mouth.

I always had a fetish for fighting big peoples. My dad put me in the ring with much bigger guys. In my first fight, I gave the guy a 14-pound advantage.

You know how many people would give up their life to get in one NBA game or NFL game or get one fight? Just to do something that has been a dream and they’ve aspired to do for their whole life – can you imagine what that means for a person?

If I spent my career responding to critics, I’d never be where I’m at right now.

I started talking about retiring in 1997. This is a brutal game, and 25 years of it ain’t good for your health. After I get past Tarver on Saturday, give me Klitschko or Tyson. Otherwise, I’m outta here.

My dad sacrificed his relationship with me so I’d be stronger for it. But I could never do it to my kids – I like to have a happy relationship with them.