“You’ve got to have a villain and they’ll always make me a villain. I’m used to it – it makes me work harder and it makes me fight harder.”

I would lie in bed, and I was nine years old, and say to myself: ‘I want to be the richest man in the world.’ I’ve come a long way from there.

I’ve never had a job. I’ve never needed to.

Boxing is real easy. Life is much harder.

I just want to be the best. I haven’t been in an all-out war. That doesn’t mean I’m not the best.

Everywhere I go, I will make a good payday. But we got to choose the right opponent and the right time and the right venue.

I come from a very rough background, and I’m saying that if you work hard and dedicate yourself that you can make it, too.

I don’t have to fight if I don’t want to.

You can never overlook a guy.

Things happen for a reason, and the only thing you can do is at night time get on your knees and ask God for forgiveness for anything that you did that you didn’t feel was right.

I’m not here to judge Mike Tyson. I’m not here to judge nobody. I’m not here to monitor no other fighters. I respect him for what he did in the sport of boxing. He was an entertainer.

I was able to retire from the sport with all my faculties and not let the sport retire me.

You have good days, you have bad days. But the main thing is to grow mentally.

I’m a man of my word.

A true champion can adapt to anything.

I always put my boxing first.

I’m a boxer who believes that the object of the sport is to hit and not get hit.

I already know what boxers do; I’ve been in it all my life. I know what they do, and I know how they prepare.

I want to convey to women across the globe that they aren’t weak. They can fight for themselves and get justice.

I’ve not been paid millions of pounds for any fights. I’ve not made any money out of boxing.

I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years.

Fighters are never who they appear to be.

I don’t have to fight if I don’t want to.

That’s my gift. I let that negativity roll off me like water off a duck’s back. If it’s not positive, I didn’t hear it. If you can overcome that, fights are easy.

I’m a fighting man, a fighting man with generations of fighting men before me in my family. That’s all we do: we fight.