I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.

Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.

I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time.

I am a fight fan. I think boxing had its problems and kind of fell away for a while, but it's coming back strong .

Like I say, boxing was on the floor, but it got back up.

You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing.

I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me.