If you’ve got physical weaknesses, you’ll lose. Nobody who gets cut easily can be a champion, however strong and talented he is. Boxers are trained to see and exploit their opponents’ weaknesses, they hit you on your wounds. Only the strongest survive in this sport.

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.

Different fights bring out different things. I consider myself a seasoned professional. I have done things in the gym that have not come out yet. People would be amazed if they saw me train.

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.

I think Kirk Johnson is a more exciting fighter than Chris Byrd. A lot of people agree with me when it comes to that.

[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.

During the past twenty-three years, I have set a number of goals for myself and I’m proud to say that these goals have been achieved.