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I grew up a wrestler; for a long time in Oklahoma I was a wrestler.

I think the greatest all-around athlete ever was Jim Brown. He played lacrosse, basketball and ran track at Syracuse. He played professional football for the Browns.

There is this great, great wrestler, who never really got an opportunity to be a star, named Len Denton: he was a masked guy called The Grappler. He was one of my favorite guys to ever wrestle, and it was just a tremendous pleasure to step in the ring with him.

A perfect record does not mean that someone is the greatest. Rocky Marciano never lost a fight, but I never hear anyone say he's the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.

I remember when I first walked into an American locker room, and no one had ever seen a 130-pound wrestler before. Those guys thought I was such a joke.

Mike Tyson was one of the most terrific athletes I've ever met.

Oklahoma's always been good to me.

My very favorite wrestler of all time was Andre the Giant. He was sort of like my best friend, believe it or not, and I have a picture in 'People' magazine of me sitting on his lap when I was 8 years old after 'WrestleMania I.'

In his brief 21 years on this earth, Michael Smith Jr. touched countless lives.