I didn't need to take any fight for the last 10 years. But I've always fought the best and I've always wanted to prove myself to the best.

I'm 100 percent clean. I'm doing this off of nuts and bananas.

Early on in my career I had the kind of anxious where you couldn't sleep at night. That anxiousness is like a virus we all have in us. Some you can deal with but some will wipe you out.

The middleweight division is one of the most exciting divisions in the sport. Fighters can punch like heavyweights and have the speed of the lightweights. You have the best of world worlds.

I function better when my back is to the wall.

You think it's hard for me when I go in the ring and fight? That's the least of my problems. I think about the five years that I did in prison. I think about the nine years on parole. Nothing - nothing! - can compare to that struggle. I'm telling you, from being an ex-convict with 30 convictions, a degree nowhere to be found and black? I'm done.

I'm not going to give up. If you pay attention to my plan and the way I live and the way I eat, then you have a chance to extend your life a few more years.