I run, but boxing conditioning is different, so you have to get used to running in the ring. Boxing movements are very different. Swimming is one of the best because every single muscle is working. I swim a lot. I train very hard at things that mimic boxing. I have to do mostly sport-specific training, such as lots of sparring.

Defeat will help you. I've been there and done that. I shook it off and came back stronger. It's nothing to be scared about.

In Soviet times the border was closed so we couldn't get out of the country, and I had been reading Robinson Crusoe. I wanted to see the ocean, I wanted to see boats, I wanted to see black people, because we didn't have that in the Soviet Union. I was all excited by that stuff.

You can take your fitness seriously, but not yourself. That's the most difficult part: not to relax. That's the most difficult challenge I'm facing every fight.

In the old days, when Muhammad Ali was fighting Ken Norton, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, there was a lot of excitement in the heavyweight division, I have to admit it.

My goal is not getting hit and to knock the other guy out. Some people might complain because they want to see boxers beat up on each other, but you cannot last long in professional boxing if you take a lot of punches.

It was like a musician playing notes. Everything we trained worked.