The best boxers don't always qualify for the Olympics. You can easily have a bad day, but please God, that won't happen to me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
That's the biggest problem with boxing in the United States. They do not promote it like they used to, when it used to be Howard Cosell and they showed it on 'Wide World of Sports.' Everybody knew all the fighters. Everybody was looking forward to the year when the Olympics came on.
A lot of boxers have too much on their plate.
There's so much pressure on becoming the next Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, and if you don't achieve that in boxing, you're nothing.
I will become the greatest, because all travellers have to be able to adapt. That quality, adaptability, is essential to that way of life. Not many boxers have it but I can adapt before a fight to the opponent, during the fight if necessary.
Aside from a handful of guys boxing is missing the good trainers, that's why our sport is so in the air now because we don't have people who have the capability to not only train fighters but also train and create decent respectable citizens of the world.
The Olympics must be my curse or something.
In the United States in the 20th century, every major event that America was going through, there was a boxer who seemed to symbolically represent it, from slavery to the Vietnam War to the Depression - all the way along, you just seemed to have boxers that carried the narrative.
When you're a boxer, there is a lot of downtime and long periods of inactivity.
Boxing is a dying sport, really. Years ago, the world heavyweight champion could be said to have reached the highest pinnacle of sport. Even in this country, boxers were heroes. Think of Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno.
I always feel like the freshest boxer going into competitions.