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

I am the best. There is nobody better than me.

A true champion will fight through anything.

If you fight angry, you make a lot of mistakes, and when you fight a sharp, witty fighter like me, you can’t make mistakes.

If I’m scared and I’m a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?

I ain’t never nervous. Never nervous.

God only made one thing in this world that’s perfect – and that’s my boxing record.

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.

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.

I will not vote to send my sons, or your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters or friends to fight for a stalemate.

I don’t know whether anyone will care to examine my heart, but if they do, they will find two words there- ‘social justice.’ For that is what I have believed in and fought for.

I believe discrimination still exists in society and we must fight it in every form.

You are everything that’s worth fighting for.

I was, I am and I always will be a drug addict. A person who gets involved in drugs has to fight it everyday.

In my personal life I’m not very tough at all, but in my professional life, having to deal with being a woman in a man’s world, I’m really tough. I never back down from a fight or an argument. I’m willing to stand there toe to toe with anyone.

Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional.

A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It’s the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.