Quote

As an athlete, you figure you work your whole life to have what you have, and to be able to show the world what you have and how proud you are of it, that's always fun.

I ran into a couple of guys who were boxers. They talked me into working out at their gym. I became obsessed with boxing and the idea of becoming a champion.

We train and work so hard in our sport, we would be nothing less than a warrior. Day in, day out, this is our life. It's everything. The Olympic dream.

Putting prize-fighting altogether aside as one of the unavoidable evils attending on this manly exercise, the inestimable value of boxing as a training, discipline, and development of boys and young men remains.

Women boxers prefer to focus on the win rather than the bravado. We've come a long way. In the '90s, you only ever saw women parading in heels and a bikini holding a scorecard. Now we're owning it; we should get some male models in Speedos to do the ring walk.

It takes a certain type of man to become a boxer, to fight for a living. To be able to have the confidence to hit another man, to control your fears. You must overcome the psychical aspect and believe in the art, the discipline of the sport. You need to study. You need to be smart.

In boxing, it is about the obsession of getting the most from yourself: wanting to dominate the world like a hungry young lion.

I'm very passionate about the use of sports in young people's lives to build self-esteem and self-discipline and self-confidence. It's been a big thing for me.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they've taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.