Excellence isn't achieved without inspiration and perspiration. You've got to have both.

There's more to boxing than hitting. There's not getting hit, for instance.

There's never been a great fight without the writers taking on and finding an identity for it. That's probably what has happened boxing. Writers are not writing about us big boys anymore and I tell you right, however you feel, take something, find it, and use it because American needs something to read about.

If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. I take that one step further. You shouldn't do anything unless you do it right.

The referee is going to be the most important person in the ring tonight besides the fighters.

There's never been a boxer better than Joe Louis. You'd take one shot from him and you were sure he'd have seven or eight more coming for you. Certainly Muhammad Ali was the greatest man ever to fight, but not the greatest boxer.

Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.