I've had 117 fights and that's the first time I've ever won.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I used to get into a lot of fights.
I've been knocked down more than any heavyweight champion in history.
My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.
I go into every fight trying to win as easy as I can.
I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.
I've never had to fight hard for anything I've gotten in the past.
If you can believe this, I didn't fight for my first world title fight till I had 58 fights, so I really appreciated what I was fighting for and for whom as well.
I never fought much. It just wasn't my thing. I suppose I could, but I've never got into fights. Not a real one.
Before the start of the '76 Olympics, I'd had 160 amateur fights. I won 155 and lost five.
I think I went on a nice winning streak of about 20 fights until I fought Jorge Reyes and he stopped me in 6 rounds after I punched myself out.