[Cus D'Amato] told me, 'You're the type of guy who has to be hurt to learn.' I'm pissed off today because he was right about everything.

I try my best to learn from other people's mistakes. I have a lot of respect for people who can change.

I was blessed with speed and a good punch. Everybody thinks I'm the hardest puncher ever. But I just think I was really fast, and my punches got to the target faster. That's what made my knockouts always seem spectacular.

There's nothing to fear but fear itself. It's an illusion of fear. Fear is an illusion. If you gonna die, you gonna die anyway; it's not something to fear, fear is not gonna help.

Being a champion opens lots of doors—I'd like to get a real estate license, maybe sell insurance.

The most important thing in the world for show business, really, you know everything's a high-tech business, but what people want now is what they can't get - exclusivity.

I didn't come from a household where my mother dragged me outside and said, "You'd better fight." My mother wouldn't let me fight. I was not an aggressive kid.