The sport needs a personality, not a fighter. We've got plenty of great fighters in the sport, but no personalities. No one is standing for anything. The last personality we had was Mike Tyson. He stood for something. It wasn't much, but he stood for something.
It's boxing. It's about getting people interested. If I didn't say some stupid things from time to time, there wouldn't be that many people interested in me. But I let my fists do the talking when the bell rings.
I do a lot of fights in the U.K., and the fans there, I have to admit probably, are the best in the world because they support their fighters.
I've always boxed, I always taught boxing.
Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion, so I took part of his name. I admired Rocky Marciano, so I took part of his name.
When I come out of the box, I don't come out of the box as racial.
I don't want to be a cookie-cutter-poster-boy-bubble-gum-chewing fighter.
He was competitive in every fight and brought his best every time out, so I have nothing personal against Froch. I actually like him a lot because he reminds me a lot of myself with his competitiveness.
I remember having a Mike Tyson T-shirt back in the day that I used to sleep in. And there some things that Tyson did along the way that I wasn't too psyched to associate myself with. But back in the day, just as a fighter, what a dream that was to watch and root for him.
Phenomenal boxing fans, I've never seen anything like it, everywhere I go people screaming 'let's go champ' it's just amazing; kids, elderly people, when it comes to boxing you can't beat Great Britain.
Although boxing is a sport, it's still entertainment. You've still got the fear, press conferences, the stare-downs. It's all an act in some ways. My whole life I've been doing it. I love this side of boxing - as much as the actual fight.
Boxing's a sport that gives you licence to act like an idiot, I think.
I started boxing at 12, and I was above weight for my age, so they put me in the ring with adults... When you're fighting all the time, it gives you the ability to fight without getting angry.
It's not just a trainer - as a man, my dad was unbelievable. Even outside boxing, he was my friend as well. We were boxer and trainer in the gym, but as soon as that bell goes, we'd have a cup of tea, and we'd go on about normal life. We would just leave that bit behind. That's how we kept going.
I liked Roy Jones, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ali... those were the guys I was looking at growing up.
Anyhow, I don't think Don King's a very good man. But then again, I doubt that a good man *could* succeed in his business. I'm sure boxing was a dirty sport before he came around. He may have just made it moreso. So that's about all I've got to say about him.
Boxers don't tend to come from Cambridge or Oxford. Sometimes the things we say don't come out well. We are not known for our vocabulary.
In the 1930s, in boxing, to be the heavyweight champion of the world was really, really big, people wanted to see the toughest guys. But what I've figured out now, in the '50s, '60s, boxing started to become more entertainment than sport.
Don King is as American as apple pie. He is America.
These guys from the nation's capital - now they do a lot of thinking. Referring to boxers from D.C., not politicians.
If you ask my promoters and managers, they will say I've never knocked back an opponent in my life.
Racism still exists in the sport of boxing.
When me and Mike Tyson were around, we played king of the hill. Whoever comes to the hill, you get your behind whooped. We don't pick and choose. I fought guys when I had fractured wrists and ribs, bad backs, I didn't care. I was the king of the hill; Tyson was king of the hill. When we left, people were trying to get the 'most money fight.'
In boxing we're allowed to come togethwe. Protestants and Catholics, the north and south, everyone. I'm in an Irish vest, even on a mural in Tiger's Bay, because boxing brings the communities together.
I knew I'd conquered America when Mike Tyson told me I was one mean lady.
