Boxers

"There's only one legend. That's me."

"Getting hit motivates me. It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, hits back with three punches."

"I am not an animal in my personal life. But in the ring there is an animal inside me. Sometimes it roars when the first bell rights. Sometimes it springs out later in a fight. But i can always feel it there, driving me and pushing me forward. It is what makes me win. It makes me enjoy fighting."

"My experience won this fight…. I knew I was in control. I was not scared. He was not hitting me with anything that was hurting me."

"I realized that my body can give me so much more."

"At lightweight it seemed he was a tremendous puncher, but I didn't find him to be that kind of puncher. A good puncher, a strong puncher, but not a devastating puncher."

"One gets the impression of Duran is that he’s a tough, rough brawler who just wades in and ducks nothing. But all you have to do is look at his face to see that is nonsense. He’s not marked up. He does a lot of cute things in there."

"Moving fluidly and jabbing, slipping punches and countering rather than swarming over DeJesus, he stalked him, relentlessly wearing him down and coolly destroying him with savage punches to the body. For 11 rounds Duran bested the classic boxer at his own game, robbing him of his speed and his will to fight, and only then did he permit himself the luxury of putting DeJesus away."

"He’s good inside, very good, strong physically. The one thing that surprised me the most was his quickness. And his defensive ability. He moves his head a lot, feints a lot. He’s not an easy man to hit."

"Duran knew how to fight. He knew what to do. If he looked at the corner the only thing I ever had to do was pretend to jab, once he was using his jab I knew he’d have no trouble. Even more important he knew how to think. When you talk about great fighters, always remember there was a guy named Roberto Duran. He was never given the opportunity to really display his wares because at his peak, he was overshadowed by Muhammad Ali."

"Duran has always been the master of defense that is one of his trademarks."

"Duran laid back, counterpunching,he's a three-time champion, a very gutsy warrior. I couldn't go in there and get foolish."

"That name, "Manos de Piedra", is true, Hands of Stone. Every punch, and I'm not exaggerating, every punch that he hit me with, from the body to the head, felt like bricks, stone, rocks. He knocked my teeth back. My front, my first 3 or 4 teeth, he knocked them back because he was just so possessed. He was a demon."

"¡No más, no más!"

"Duran has heart. He's been a great champion for years and years. It must have been something very serious to make him quit. But I won fair and square, I beat him emotionally and I beat him physically."

"I'm not the best, I'm just a guy who's willing to fight the best."

"Chad Dawson is a woman in man’s body."

"Chad Dawson will run like a chicken"

"I will fight like a lion to retain my title."

"Vazquez is the fiercest opponent I have ever faced and I wear my super bantamweight championship belt with pride because I won it by defeating him."

"The excitement I underwent before the bout was something I’ll never forget. For a week I trained extra hard. I ran extra long distances. Every night when I went to bed I dreamed I was fighting. It was so clear – I would be going at it hot and heavy, then I would bring over a right hand and he would go down, the fight was over. Then the fight began. Here all the nervousness went out of me. I was doing what I wanted to do. It all seemed like something I had done many times before. And you know what? In the third round, just as I dreamed, I hit him with a hard right hand. Down he went and he didn’t get up. I had knocked him out."

"A sturdy, two-fisted fighter with a big punch. Remember, while most American fans didn’t get a chance to see him in action, there was a time in the early-and mid 60s where he was considered the best fighter, pound-for pound, in the world."

"It was my ambition to fight Becerra. I didn't care where. But that very year Becerra was unlucky enough to be responsible for the death of Walt Ingram, whom he had boxed in Mexico. I don't think he wanted to fight too much after that. He continued for another year, or until he himself was knocked out over the weight in Mexico by Eloy Sanchez. Then he did retire."

"To the greatest fans and the greatest sport in the world, thank you! Thank you for all the wonderful memories. This is the hardest decision I’ve ever made, but I’m at peace with it. Chase your dreams, work hard, and watch what happens. Good bye boxing."

"I want to be the best fighter. I would like to fight in the biggest fights."

"Only God knows that. He is the only one who knows. He is only one who will know. And he is the only one who does know."

"Boxing is not for killing."

"As a Christian, same-sex marriage is not allowed. Woman was made for man, man was made for woman. For me, it’s common sense. Will you see any animals where male is to male and female is to female? The animals are better. They know how to distinguish, male or female. If we approve male on male, female on female, then man is worse than animal. Right? Even among animals… those of the same sex are not allowed to lie together. But I’m not condemning them. Just the marriage, the committing of sin against God."

"Since no welterweight or middleweight will fight me I am compelled to go to the next class. Will any heavyweights fight me?"

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"I will defend my title as heavyweight champion of the world against all comers, none barred. By this I mean black, Mexican, Indian or any other nationality without regard to color, size or nativity. I propose to be the champion of the world, not the white or the Canadian or the American or any other limited degree of champion."

"I said to myself, 'You're a man from a humble background, what you didn't learn in school, you'll learn now. Catch up.'"

"Joe Louis is the hardest puncher that I've ever seen... He's a good man. Anyone who plans on beating him had better know what they're doing."

"I can't accept the title, to win it this way doesn't mean anything to me."

"I received a letter from the Reich Ministry of Sports. They want me to split from Joe Jacobs, my manager since 1928.... I really need Joe Jacobs. I owe all my success in America to him."

"Hasta la vista, baby. I can't take this abuse anymore. I'm coming back - as a spectator. I'm retired."

"I have the heart and what its got to be champion and I did it, I proved it tonight again."

"Every time I hear the name Joe Louis, my nose starts to bleed."

"Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking. I never had any formal education—not even a nursery school certificate. But sometimes I know more than Ph.D.s because as a military man I know how to act. I am a man of action."

"Politics is like boxing — you try to knock out your opponents."

"My mission is to lead the country out of a bad situation of corruption, depression and slavery. After I rid the country of these vices, I will then organize and supervise a general election of a genuinely democratic civilian government."

"His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular."

"You cannot run faster than a bullet."

"Although some people felt Adolf Hitler was bad, he was a great man and a real conqueror whose name would never be forgotten."

"In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order."

"I am the hero of Africa."

"Hitler and all German people knew that the Israelis are not people who are working in the interest of the people of the world and that is why they burnt over six million Jews alive on the soil of Germany. The world should remember that the Palestinians, with the assitance of Germany made the operation possible in the Olympic village."

"Amin is a splendid man by any standards and is held in great respect and affection by his British colleagues. … He is tough and fearless and in the judgment of everybody … completely reliable. Against this he is not very bright and will probably find difficulty in dealing with the administrative side of command."

"Idi Amin is a splendid type and a good rugby] player … but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter."

"Racist, erratic and unpredictable, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, and militaristic."

"He is killer and clown, big-hearted buffoon and strutting martinet."

"Field Marshall Idi Amin became president of Uganda in 1971. To the rest of the world he was a showman his extravagance was exceeded by his talent for comic buffonery. But behind the grinning face was a calculating monster who brought about a tragedy of monumental proportions. He slaughtered thousands of innocent Ugandans in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and executed his enemies live on television. He mutilated his wife and murdered his ministers keeping their heads in his fridge as a warning to others. He ordered his secret police to torture and kill while Amin kept the pictures for his own sick amusement. By the end of his reign over 300,000 people, one in 60 in the population, had been murdered by Amin. He had turned the prosperous country of Uganda into a disease ridden backwater, its rivers choked with the corpses of his victims."

"Idi Amin's sense of showmanship often deluded foreigners into thinking that he was merely a colorful buffoon. His innumerable victims and their families knew better as they lived through a decade when torture and death might strike anyone, anywhere. Amin's flamboyant brutality attracted the world's attention, but left Uganda, the Pearl of Africa, a devastated and bankrupt wreck. Stories that he was a cannibal, who kept the heads of his victims in his refrigerator and brought them out for discussions, or that he fed his enemies to crocodiles, may not be true."

"Illiterate, garrulous and burly, as terrifying as he was ridiculous, Field-Marshal Idi Amin Dada was a buffoonish bully and sadistic mass-murderer who earned the soubriquet the 'Butcher of Uganda', The soi-disant 'Last King of Scotland' impoverished Uganda, once the Jewel of Africa, a megalomaniacal cannibalistic loon who killed so many of his countrymen that the crocodiles of Lake Victoria could not consume them fast enough."

"Idi Amin virtually destroyed Uganda, murdering 300,000 people; many more were forced to seek refuge abroad. And even with his removal from power, the agony did not end for the Ugandan people. Obote returned to power in flawed elections in 1980 and plunged the country into civil war; by the time he was overthrown in 1985, several hundred thousand more Ugandans had perished. Such was the legacy of Amin."

"Dictators have also been overthrown by foreign invaders working in concert with local rebel armies. Idi Amin of Uganda was as disturbingly clever as dictators go. He once wore a kilt to a royal funeral in Saudi Arabia and he is alleged to have sent President Richard Nixon a "Get Well Soon" card after the Watergate scandal broke. He was also a horrifyingly brutal tyrant. In October 1978 Amin invaded the neighboring country of Tanzania. The Tanzanian army joined forces with Ugandan rebels and, in April 1979, drove Amin out of Uganda and replaced him with the equally dictatorial Milton Obote. Yoweri Moseveni has ruled the country since 1986. To describe Uganda in the twenty-first century as a "shaky democracy" would be polite."

"I feel that if I am busting my arse, if I am stretching at night, if I am working hard in the gym, if I am doing all of my extras out on the field, if I am the first one there and the last to leave or whatever, and if I am giving my all every game, then I deserve to be the man I want to be rather than the man other people want me to be."

"Every sport has helped me excel in another. Boxing has given me the mental strength to know that I can face anything on the field, without a doubt."

"I am the first to jump up and say that I am a proud Samoan."

"I feel like I am on the right path now. It has helped me with my confidence on the sporting field and with my self-belief, but outside of sport my life is a lot smoother too. Like everyone, I have my faults and I veer off the path sometimes, but my faith helps me get back on it and to stay being a good person. I am a lot happier now in my own skin."

"[Her birth] was the best moment of my life, by far, and it didn't do it justice watching it on Skype...When I saw my child for the first time it just switched the switch, you know. That's when you realise you love something more than you love yourself."

"If you don't have massive dreams, you might as well stay in bed."

"In 20 years time, I want to say 'didn't I have a go when I was in my prime', and I went back to play rugby league, tried to make the Rugby World Cup, tried to make the Olympics or tried to win the World Cup with the Kiwis."

"When I finish my sporting career it's not about what I've done, or being remembered as a legend. For me it's just about being the best father, husband and man I can be."

"I try not to read too much in the media because they're either gonna put you on a pedestal too high or underplay you."

"In terms of Sonny Bill, well Sonny Bill’s one of the most gifted players we’ve ever seen, big or small. His physical presence, his athleticism, his ability to play like a halfback, but with the strength and offloading ability of Arthur Beetson; it’s a pretty good package, Sonny Bill Williams."

"What’s the Sonny Bill Effect? Without doubt, he’s been a giant of the club. There’s the athletic ability and the consummate professionalism. He works as hard on his preparation as any player I’ve ever seen. Of course he’s a natural, but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into making it so natural. He’s the modern-day sportsman. He’s helped turn us into a modern-day club. There’s no drinking, there’s no smoking, there’s none of the partying habits that can drag rugby league down. The influence of Sonny Bill? We’re talking about an icon of our sport and this club."

"In 2013, Sonny Bill Williams drove the Roosters to glory with the skill, footwork and defensive weaponry that makes him arguably the most complete back-rower the code has seen."

"He changed the game around with the offload and the way a No.12 plays. He's strong, and he's quick for his size as well, with pretty good skills for a big guy. He did really well when he played the game."

"[T]he most gifted footballer I’ve ever seen..."

"[He's] the smartest on the uptake that I have encountered."

"I’ve never coached a more professional footy player in attitude."

"My chin is titanium, my fists are uranium, I don’t kneel to anybody, because GOD is within me"

"If defeating me was a possibility; I would have died long ago! ..... Send them ..... Your Lions I Declaw ... Your Serpents I Defang ... Your Greats I Belittle."

"I depart 105 finally lifting my foot of the throat of my eternal subordinate the Thai Duck Wanheng Menayothin, who showed exceptional survival skills best found in healthy women, wellbred slaves & the offspring of submissive prostitutes."

"My style is intentionally natural, I will fight till the last moment of my biological existence. … I don’t like discussing my pre-boxing past as I feel it will be considered inappropriately semi-legendary."

"History will remember me as the most powerful puncher that rambled through divisions like the Nazi divisions did France, Belgium & the lowlanders. Ducking me and running away to Dunkirk makes you a coward. Until someone stands up to my fistic tyranny I am the one and only dictator."

"I been around as far as life existed, 40 is just what humans recognize as my age. Skipping Theology, age will not be an issue."

"Patria y Vida no; ¡Patria o muerte, venceremos!"

"What a morning you have given us Julio César! The homeland felt the "I love you Cuba" that you said when you won your second Olympic gold. Congratulations, boy, your fight was resounding. We already have 6 gold medals and our little Island ranks 13th in the medal table. What a feat!"

"In my childhood years, I dreamt of being a footballer. But as my friends often joke, they tried to take the ball in an unsportsmanlike way... which is how I became a boxer."

"Boxing is my life, but my life is not only boxing."

"Anyone can insult a boxer, but not everyone will manage to apologise in time."

"I do sports, business and politics. In sports, after you break the rules, the sportsman receives a warning or might be disqualified. In business, whoever uses forbidden tricks risks being left without partners. Politics is a whole lot different. It resembles a jar with cockroaches. There you have competition - who tricks whom, who lies to whom. And even if politicians employ forbidden tricks against each other, they [ultimately] meet again in the same jar."

"Everyone was supposed to go to parliament to work with their heads. For some, working with their heads didn't work out, so they went on to employ their fists. As an expert in this matter I can say that they didn't manage to do it very well, either."

"(Of Ukrainians' preferences to look to the future in the European Union) And today in the next day, not everyone can look [there]. That is, not only all can look [there], few can do that."

"From Bill Clinton?.. E-e-e-erm... Be simpler and speak in accessible... in accessible language of the pe... peop... in accessible language... of the people. Because numerous politicians try to speak in such pher... terminology and in so outlandish terms that... you can listen [them] for an hour, and then... erm, ask him what you've understood from all of what he said, and that guy won't be able to tell anything. (During an interview with Ksenia Sobchak)"

"In Odessa region [there is] a city, 50 kilometres, not far away... Fifty kilometres... You know, the distance isn't measured in kilometres. Two hours! It takes two hours to drive 50 kilometres. (Describing his journey from Izmail to Kiliia)"

"(Reply to a provocator) Get your fucking ass on the Maidan quickly!"

"I have to confess... for a long time, for many-many years, I am a convinced lesbian. I struggle to understand the representatives of sexual minorities when so many beautiful women are around you."

"The problem we've encountered is the inept policies of the whole ruling class of the country, and we shouldn't be looking to the people for the reason [behind them]."

"I want to draw attention of everybody [to the fact that] I met with numerous policemen who died, with the protesters who died, and all of them are asking..."

"I have two deputies, four of whom have already been lying in the Cabinet of Ministers for one month and whom it is impossible to appoint. I have no idea why."

"She [Klitschko's wife] is everywhere. She is in Kyiv. Today she flied to Germany. She works in the whole world. And after all she is where I am."

"I ask all Kyivans to understand this problem, and I will also ask all Kyivans... in the same manner to be especially... with especial attitude address the problem of heat conservation and the preparation to earth. Klitschko confused земля (earth) with зима (winter)"

"(Answering the question of the status of post-annexation Crimea) We have... what we had. We have talked about that. The current situation we have. And we have to look which we can... What we can do..."

"In previous years, when the Kyivans were waking up without any permits at all, the parks and squares have been built over and as a result, now we have a lack of trust."

"For the cold water to become hot, you have to heat it up. Obviously, for that we need gas. We are waiting for the gas supplies to begin but there aren't any."

"I, for instance, don't see any smells whatsoever. (While tasting tap water)"

"Journalist. Tell me please, how much time do you need in order to get the capital in order?"

"Lobanovsky is no longer with us, but he remains alive. His work remains alive, his people remain alive, his remains are still alive, the memory about him is still alive."

"If in earlier times one in six people died in intensive care, now it's every other person. This is very important. We are elevating [the quality], we are saving lives."

"Among the ill are two inferior children: a 16-year-old guy and a 17-year-old young lady. He meant "minor"."

"In great mood we greet the year 2220... eh, 2222..."

"If my home country needs my life, I am ready to give my life — for my country, for my children, for the future."

"Nobody wants to die, everybody wants to live, but the Russians want to rebuild a Russian empire and we don’t want to live in a Russian empire. The Russians try to put us on our knees, but we’re fighting right now for freedom and for the future of our children and our country."

"Ukraine is a peaceful country, we were never aggressive to anyone. But, right now, the situation is about our future, the future of our children - and we have to defend that."

"Russians go away, Russian soldiers have to go away from our home country - and after that we are ready to discuss."

"Russian soldiers are fighting for the money, Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian citizens are fighting for the future of our children - and you feel the difference between the money and the children."

"You don't kill your brother. You don't rape your sister. You don't destroy your friend's country. That's why today we dismantled this monument once created as a sign of friendship between Ukraine and Russia."

"Boxing has rules. Politics has very flexible rules."

""I set my goals and achieved them because we trained well and were ready. The only problem we faced is that we had to travel to Mozambique with a car and arrived there tired and fatigued which had an impact on our performances,”"

"I thought I could do something with it." Three years down the line, Morake sees herself as the beginning of women's boxing in the country."

"When it started there was not much - we didn't have women in the BDF (Botswana Defence Force) or football and everybody is now following."

"So this is just the beginning. I'm the beginning of women's boxing in the country."

"I'm fully qualified, I'm a woman, I was born a woman, I lived a woman, there's no doubt about that. These people, they are the enemies of success, it's what I call them, it gives my success a special taste because of these attacks."

"Abundance of water the foolish man must be taste."

"A river cannot flow into the forest without bringing down the trees."

"The roads you pass some people have pass already."

"Anything you want if you get, there is no beggars on the road."

"Ghana here we don’t have managers, they will watch you one year, two years, if you call the manager switch off, I want to go America, that’s where all the fighters are."

"Woman without no man is like a river without source."

"Empty calabash cannot sink in the river."

"When a vulture shake their waist, it is cover their sons."

"When a witch fly at night, something happens to the mango tree, you can ask the clouds."

"Bukom is my favorite food, I can’t leave Bukom. Even if I buy house in Legon I can’t leave Bukom, Bukom is my temperature."

"When the bush are destroyers, any animals cannot open mouth to talk."

"A dead lion is more than a dog is not dead."

"A monkey learn about the mango tree, they cannot fall down."

"A tsetsefly cannot listen to their teaching, is walking to the death man to go cemetery."

"A man can never be careful unless he buys a white shirt and a new car."

"I am not anybody in this country, I’m the big popular, I’m the musician, I’m the comedian."

"A talking plenty cannot let dead man hear you."

"Karl Lokko, he is my former trainer, he is not my trainer, I sack him, I’m big more than him."

"When I eat Banku I get more power, when I don’t eat Banku I can’t train. I don’t like drink."

"The lady, I love him, not as a sister, I love him, he is my wife, he will play number four for me. I have a goal keeper and two defenders, so he go play four."

"The only foolish dog, run after the flying bird."

"The quality of boxers at the Youth Games was “top notch”."

"Fencing is one of those exercises that employs the mind as well as the body, and, in fact, employs it more than the body, the further a man advances in proficiency. From the first it supplies the excitement of contest, and depends so much on art and address that the man of superior mind always makes the best fencer in the end."

"Above all things, never lose your presence of mind, and never consider yourself unarmed even if confronted by an armed man, for almost anything can be made into a weapon if properly used. An umbrella is a fearful weapon if used with both hands like a bayonet. It will parry the blows of a big bully, and you can return him a stab in the face or breast or stomach that will settle him. A lady can defend herself from outrage with her parasol in the same way. If she struck a ruffian over the head with it, he would laugh at her, but I remember a certain girl who killed a ruffian who assaulted her by a stab with the point of her parasol."

"I hate those foreign bullies. De Mores is one of them. The Frenchman cannot bully the Americans.I will accept that challenge as a substitute for the fighting editor of .You may say in that a substitute volunteers to appear for the fighting editor in this contest. He a man past 77 years of age, a light old man, a gentleman of irreproachable character, of as high rank as De Mores, and in military lines a General. Say I will fight him for the honor of America against France with any of the following weapons, he, of course, being entitled to choose the weapons:Pistols at ninety feet, advance and fire at will.Apé combat (triangular swords).Sabers or any cutting swords; cuts alone, no thrusts.Bayonets, go as you please.Bowie knives, and 'no protection,' if he desires to renew his experience in the wild West.With the fist, go as you please, no time.I prefer a shiny weapon. I am of a kind, philanthropic disposition, and as firearms demand, even with the most skillful shot, to aim at the heart, allowing for misses, a man is a murderer at the beginning. Humanity may not then be displayed. On the contrary, with the shiny weapon I would only attempt to clip the wings of my honored opponent. Should my philanthropic remarks be misconstrued, state that if my honored opponent wants death he can find it. My opponent will have the choice of weapons. We cannot fight here. I will fight him in Mexico or Belgium. He can't bluff the Americans in that sort of way. I am a Gothic American."

"He who lives by the sword lives long."