I should say that mental strength is No. 1, experience [is] No. 2, physical strength is No. 3, and genetic ability that you're getting from Mother Nature probably comes after.

I don't like to get hit, who likes it? I probably wouldn't do this sport if I was getting hit that much.

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.

He's been an inspiration for me since the Olympics 1996.

Obsession is love in an extreme shape.

That's the most terrible mistake you can make: to relax. It's difficult to become a champion, but it's more difficult to maintain it for many years because you're getting too comfortable.

It's not my place to compare myself to greats like Tyson, Frazier or men like that. But I would look at a fighter like Evander Holyfield. He's a great heavyweight who worked his way up through the weight classes to become champion and had to beat bigger men along the way.