“I was raised by both parents up to 17. We had a good family. We had a middle class family, good teaching and good surroundings, raised by the church, where I went every week whether I wanted to or not.”

I was born a leader, never a follower. I never felt peer pressure. If the group goes left, I go right.

When I structured my career, I looked at Muhammad Ali, which is my all-time favorite and an idol of mine, and what he has done for this sport. He was a real-life hero.

At the end of the day, I am going for all the belts, so I am going to have to go through all of them. And I would live to fight the U.K. guys – even in the U.K.

I’m not playing around in 2016.

I definitely got into a lot of fights when I was a kid. I never understood it. I was one of those quiet kids. I never picked with no one.

I’m looking forward to the fighting with no headgear – I’m jealous. I kind of want to go back to the Olympics to experience no headgear.

I didn’t even know about amateur boxing, period.

All my prayers go out to Tyson Fury. I know it’s difficult to be in his situation.

Going to Russia is going to be nothing for me. I’m going to treat it like it’s the U.S. because, at the end of the day, it’s one man, one ring.

I like to have fun in the ring, but I knock them out.

I can be a tennis player, a golf player, and even a soccer player.

I don’t play boxing.

The craziest thing about it, I used to hate fighting, but you had to show how tough you was; you had to show you wasn’t no punk.

I want to put my name in history. I love history.

I have so many things that I want to do with my life. I just don’t see myself being a fighter forever. Boxing is my love and passion. It also opens up and sets up other things in my life as well.

I can adapt to any environment or any situation I need to, so I am ready to go to Russia. You take what you get or start crying about it, but I am re-doing ‘Rocky IV.’ I am doing the black ‘Rocky.’

I don’t want to be singing Satisfaction when I’m 40.

The truth is I’m getting old, I said. We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don’t feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.

That which is the wonder of one age is the commonplace of the next.

Minds ripen at very different ages.

It is not a sin to be seventy but it is also no joke.

I didn’t want to go there [America] at 34 years old and for people to say he’s only going for the money. It’s not what I’m going out there to do

Your aging face tells stories of where you’ve been whom you’ve loved.

You are your own scriptwriter and the play is never finished, no matter what your age or position in life.