At first I didn’t give a damn to go down in history. I wanted to win. But the more I won, the more I thought about leaving something behind. Yes, it's as important as hell to me. I want to leave something that people will remember me by. Of course, a lot of boxers want to do that. But it's not easy. Take Larry Holmes, he was the big man after Muhammad Ali, he wanted to emulate him, but for some reason the public didn’t take him like they did to Ali. I think people won’t fully understand what I contributed to the sport for years.

Action is what separates the do-ers from the dreamers.

Boxing involves the possibility of defeat, I accepted that very early on. After all, there are only two men and one of them wins.

The fight will last as long as I allow it to last.

I have always been English, ever since I emigrated from England and since the kids in Canada beat me up at the age of twelve for having an East London Cockney accent. I thank them for the cockney taunts because the beatings turned me on to boxing. But on a serious note Canada has been kind to me.

[Kirk] Johnson throws some heavy punches and is a knockout fighter. This is what people want to see. They want to see a fight, they want to see punches and they want to see action.

There are still a lot of Mike Tyson fans out there, and a lot of disbelievers in the first fight, and they want to see us fight again. I am the emperor. If he wants to fight, I am here. If he does not, I understand.