Sometimes success needs interruption to regain focus and shake off complacency.

Mike Tyson fit the American ideal of a boxer. A fighter who jumps out of his corner and hits out fiercely. That’s what he’'ll be remembered for. But good boxing doesn’t work like that. Tyson never won on points. It was clear that he’'d come a cropper some day.

In boxing you create a strategy to beat each new opponent, it's just like chess.

I don't see where Tyson Fury has boxed anybody of Wladimir's [ Klitschko] calibre to be able to get in the ring with Wladimir and do well.

When I was fighting Tyrell Biggs, Tyson was telling me at ringside to hit him to the ribs. We always had a mutual respect for each other since we sparred those early times. We got that over with.

Patience is a part of boxing. After I had missed out on the Olympic gold medal in 1984, a lot of people tried to talk me into turning professional quickly to make money. They told me that the next Olympics in Seoul would be boycotted again, that I was wasting my life, blah blah. But I still had unfinished business. I wanted the gold medal, and I got it in ‘88. Only then was I ready to turn professional.

Sometimes the image of the intellectual boxer did for me more harm than good. If a boxer has a reputation as an intellectual, some people no longer respect him as a fighter. With me it was always ‘Lennox should react, not think’. But that’s nonsense. Only the guy who controls his opponent wins.