Roy Jones Jr.

“After my arrival in Russia, I saw that there is a large community of boxers. I also felt appreciated in Russia. Maybe even a lot more than I was valued and appreciated in my own country.”

“With me, I come in the ring and start thinking right away. My thought process is just to put a guy down. I'm like a technician and learn to break it all down - from head to toe.”

“I don't care about no boxing legacy. I don't care where they put me on the list of all-time greats - let them put me at the bottom.”

“They've made it a felon to drive from Florida to Louisiana with any fighting birds, so I've had to get rid of most of my chickens. I only got about a hundred left now, which I just keep for colour and breeding. I love those birds as much as anything.”

“I never wanted my kids to feel about me the way I felt about him.”

“This fan thing doesn't really have any effect on my career goals. You know, I'll still be training fighters and haven't made any career plans yet. Just like I hadn't made any career plans before I fought Maccarinelli. I'll see how it goes, see how I feel. I always listen to my body.”

“Some of those guys show a lot of promise, especially Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. Even the kid Joseph Parker, who Joshua is about to fight, shows a lot of promise. I'm looking forward to some really exciting fights in the heavyweight division to come.”

“When me and Mike Tyson were around, we played king of the hill. Whoever comes to the hill, you get your behind whooped. We don't pick and choose. I fought guys when I had fractured wrists and ribs, bad backs, I didn't care. I was the king of the hill; Tyson was king of the hill. When we left, people were trying to get the 'most money fight.'”

“I don't know what tomorrow holds. None of us do. We got to wait and see what God has planned.”

“I was so scared of my father. He'd pull up in his truck and start looking for something I'd done wrong. There was no escape, no excuse, no way out of nothing.”

“I started talking about retiring in 1997. This is a brutal game, and 25 years of it ain't good for your health. After I get past Tarver on Saturday, give me Klitschko or Tyson. Otherwise, I'm outta here.”

“I don't really give in to the critics because critics are always going to criticize, and what have they done? A person who has never done nothing can't really care nothing about doing something. So as far as the critics, I don't care what they think. I don't have time to give to critics.”

“You can't pretend there has ever been anyone come close to doing what I did. Nobody you could name could touch me, and I'm talking about nobody who's around now, nobody who was around in my prime, and nobody who was around any time you can mention outta your mouth.”

“Fishing keeps you alive, gives you time away - to enjoy God, the creations that He made. Because God made you.”

“One thing I learned from the '88 Olympics: It's not a question of if they can screw you over: it's a question of if they will. It's not the gold medal they took away from me. The medal doesn't mean anything. It's that they said I lost. That experience is well and alive in my mind.”

“Andre Ward got the chance to fight Sergey Kovalev twice. Triple G and Canelo are fighting again. People are getting paid to play king of the hill again.”

“Boxing has been my life, and it is my life. I've enjoyed every moment of it.”

“Nobody in history has won all the titles I've won and the cruiserweight title. I'd be the only man in history. That's when you die and go to Heaven, and God can look at you and know you did everything with the gifts he gave you.”

“If God truly wanted me to stop, all He'd have to do is have one doctor at the Mayo Clinic find something wrong with my brain. Just one little CAT scan showing any sign of trauma or damage, and I'd be done.”

“Every day, it was the same: school, homework, farm work, training. Getting hurt or dying might've been better than the life I was living.”