Joe Calzaghe Quotes

I'm proud to be one of only a few fighters in history to retire undefeated.

I didn't expect one day I become world champion in the United States. I'm very proud to be together with boxing legends. It's a dream to be in with Muhammad Ali.

When I won the title against Jean Pascal it also won me fight of the year.

I was undisputed. I never got my titles took. I vacated them.

When I first went into a boxing gym I watched Kovalev fight on TV and now my name is spoken about in the same light as him, now I'm fighting him.

I don't think being undefeated is going to determine my greatness.

I'm somebody from a little tiny town, who had boxed in leisure centres, and my last fight was in Madison Square Garden against one of the greats. What a great way to finish off.

So I plan to become one of the few to beat Manny Pacquiao and also become one of the legends.

Pacquiao earned the right to go out how he wants to go out. He had fought everybody there is to fight - when they was there to fight. He fought all the top names. Eight-division champion. He accomplished everything there is to do in the sport of boxing.

I feel blessed that I managed to fight 46 fights undefeated, that I was a world champion for 11 years, one of the longest reigning champions of all time and I like to think that I come out looking pretty good.

The one-time cotton picker was now the heavyweight champion of the world.

If I'm watching my favorite boxer, and he's just won the heavyweight championship of the world, and he retires, it kind of makes the guy a legend.

I've fought everybody without ducking anyone. I have beaten 10 undefeated guys, and I never was comparing myself to the greatest in the sport. I was not thinking of breaking any records. I'm just enjoying my time in boxing.

My fans know the name Larry Holmes and that he always gave it his all.

Winning the first championship is a goal for any boxer, and it means a lot to reach it.

Flipping through the 'Toronto Star' one day in 2008, I noticed a piece about a phenomenal boxer from the Philippines who had won several different titles in several different weight divisions. Manny Pacquiao's rise from heart-crushing poverty to the top ranks of his sport was astounding.

Manny Pacquiao has a whole country behind him. His journey and his rise, from a career standpoint, he was fortunate to have a lot of great opponents and rivalries for years. People forget about Barrera and Morales and those guys. That's how he built his legacy. Plus he had a country behind him.

Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest, pound-for-pound, ever. He fought most of his career with just one loss, and that was to me. He had 131 fights with one loss.

At the end of your career, you go, 'I'm gonna be able to retire undefeated and be one of the very, very few people in history to do it.' People were saying I should try and get to 50-0, but my number was 46 - that was it. I could have kept trying, but one loss would have spoiled everything.

I don't want to just be a champion, and I'm done with that. I wanna be a lightweight legend.

Once I have beaten Mormeck, I don't feel there'll be anything left to prove. After winning the world title, I will be recognised as the No. 1 cruiserweight in the world.

I very much doubt that it could happen again that any manager would do 20 years with a top Premiership club.

I want to go down in the history books as one of the greatest female boxers of all time, and I think I'm on the right path.

When everybody asked me when they were going to see more out of Terence Crawford, I always told them, 'Just put me in there with somebody.'

No one's kicking down the door to fight Bernard Hopkins.