“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.”

People have said things about me, and wrote and criticized me about things in the past, but it goes in one ear and out the other.

I think my grandmother saw my potential first. When I was young, I told her, ‘I think I should get a job.’ She said, ‘No, just keep boxing.’

I’m always focused.

Everything people say I couldn’t do I’ve done.

I haven’t took no punishment. There’s nothing cool about taking punishment.

Worry about going out there and making your own legacy.

There comes a time when money doesn’t matter.

When I was about 8 or 9, I lived in New Jersey with my mother and we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn’t have electricity.

I’m just an American dream.

In the end, you have to protect yourself at all times.

My whole outlook on life is, never judge a book by its cover.

When I step in the ring, I bring everything I have.

I know that there’s a god because I was able to survive everything that I’ve been through – all of the tough times – and I’m still at the top of my game.

You know, everybody has a slogan, and once you beat people over the head with it so much, then that’s what you’ll eventually be called once you retire from the sport or whatever.

Self-preservation is an important thing to me.

Boxing’s in my genes. I come from a fighting background. My dad and both my uncles were good boxers. I’m blessed with the art of war.