Shannon Briggs

“Depression is not a choice.”

“Naysayers have been saying stuff my whole career.”

“I've been all the way at the bottom. Now I can only go up.”

“Going to the Olympics would have been great.”

“I'm the people's champion.”

“I think the people of Great Britain have embraced me in a great way and I feel honoured and looking forward to winning the title in England for them.”

“I had to fight in K-1 in Japan to make a living between fighting and doing commercial work over there, and it's been a roller coaster in a sense, but it's been a smooth one.”

“I want everyone to recognize and know me. I don't want bodyguards. I want to be able to go out into the masses.”

“Brownsville breeds the best fighters in the world. What other neighborhood has produced so many champions?”

“Underachiever. Asthmatic. Excuse-maker and fistic faker. My opponents and some other haters have called me all of those things.”

“This is a big game, and there are a lot of haters in the game. But don't hate me, hate the game.”

“The only thing I'm good at is boxing.”

“I want the best. I've always fought the best.”

“My mother taught me right and wrong, and the right is the only way to go.”

“After the Klitschko fight they left me for dead in the hospital. It was just my wife and me - we were alone and had no money.”

“I want to leave this sport with a little bit of my brains left.”

“I had a mother who gave me everything.”

“Phenomenal boxing fans, I've never seen anything like it, everywhere I go people screaming 'let's go champ' it's just amazing; kids, elderly people, when it comes to boxing you can't beat Great Britain.”

“I am from the ghetto.”

“People want to see blood. They don't care anymore if you can box for 12 rounds. They don't appreciate the art of the good boxer.”