"He should’ve been the only heavyweight anybody ever thought of when they thought about the greatest heavyweight champion. I mean he had everything. He could punch, he could box. He was mean and determined."

"Nobody has to go hungry today. There is plenty of work for a man who wants to work. A kid can make plenty of dough for himself doing almost anything. I was hungry. I had to fight my way along. Freights and the like, fight, fight all the time. The life was tough, but it hardened you."

"When I was a young fellow I was knocked down plenty. I wanted to stay down, but I couldn’t. I had to collect the two dollars for winning or go hungry. I had to get up. I was one of those hungry fighters. You could have hit me on the chin with a sledgehammer for five dollars. When you haven’t eaten for two days you’ll understand."

"Greb may have been the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, who ever lived. Certainly, he was among the top 2 or 3. He combined the speed of Ray Robinson, the durability of Jim Jeffries, the stamina of Henry Armstrong, and the unbridled ferocity of Stanley Ketchel with a will to win unsurpassed in the annals of sport. At his peak, he was unbeatable, defeating virtually every middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight of his generation. A great, great fighter."

"The fastest fighter I ever saw. Hell. Greb is faster than Benny Leonard (lightweight champion)."

"I've seen George Foreman shadow boxing and the shadow won!"

"My life is much more than boxing — I've been knocked out more outside the ring than in the ring."

"I don’t like Marvin. Never have and never will. I just want to tell you something. Get there early and sit tight. Don’t blink. You might miss the fight."

"I achieved something once again, I think we all want to put a mark on life. I dream, and my dreams always come true. I dreamed I was the heavyweight champion of the world. I am the heavyweight champion of the world."

"I didn't fight this fight for the blacks, the whites or the Spanish, I fought the fight for the people. We're all God's children. I don't see color. I'm not a racist When I look at Gerry Cooney, I just see a man trying to take my head off."

"It was like fighting a billy-goat, butt and run. I was saved by the jab. No jab and we would have lost it."

"Greb gave me a terrible whipping. My jaw was swollen from the right temple down the cheek, along the chin and part way up the other side. The referee, the ring itself, was full of my blood. If boxing was afflicted with the commission doctors that we have now, the first fight probably would have been stopped and no one would have heard of me today."

"He was never in one spot for more than half a second, all my punches were aimed and timed properly but they always wound up hitting empty air. He'd jump in and out, slamming me with a left and whirling me around with his right or the other way around. My arms were plastered with leather and although I jabbed, hooked and crossed, it was like fighting an octopus."

"Greb gave me a terrible whipping. My jaw was swollen from the right temple down the cheek, along the chin and part way up the other side. The referee, the ring itself, was full of my blood. If boxing was afflicted with the commission doctors that we have now, the first fight probably would have been stopped and no one would have heard of me today."

"I don't even think about a retirement program because I'm working for the Lord, for the Almighty. And even thought the Lord's pay isn't very high, his retirement program is, you might say, out of this world."

"Joe Louis was a good Heavyweight, good boxer but he was kind of in the same boat as Marciano, weighing about 190 to 200 lbs."

"If you want to get technical about it, Rocky couldn't carry my jockstrap."

"It wasn't about Larry Holmes, if I would have fought a brother I wouldn't have gotten the money I got. Give me 10 black guys and I make eight dollars. Give me Gerry Cooney and I make $10 million."

"When you constantly hear people talking about going the distance, going the distance, you can't help but wonder about it. I learned a lesson: next time I will fight my fight without that doubt."

"I want to keep fighting because it is the only thing that keeps me out of the hamburger joints. If I don't fight, I'll eat this planet."

"In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn't have any fear. I thought, "This is easy. This is what I've been waiting for." No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost."

"I will not quit until I am a five-times world champion."

"His use of rhythm, his timing, his footwork. Ray Robinson was the greatest combination of speed and power that ever came together in one fighter."

"He could knock you out going backwards. He could knock you out going forward. And that's why people remember him now as the greatest fighter we've ever had, pound for pound."

"This man was the ultimate warrior in the ring. He was the ultimate dispatcher of a foe. He was a distance fighter, an in-fighter, very scientific, beautiful to see, and he made this brutal, uncivilized, barbaric sport ballet."

"Don't give him a rematch. Because once you beat him that way, you'd be sure that the next time he'd adjust, and he'd know what to do."

"Ray Robinson was the perfect fighter because he had no weakness. He had one greatest chins of all time. He was never really knocked out in a 25 year career. Another special thing about Robinson was how many times he was able to get off the floor to win. He always rose to the occasion."

"Nobody beat Ray twice until he was 40 years old. His intelligence, his versatility, and his will to win were the reasons he won all those rematches. He created a new place for the imagination of a fighter."

"He come at me with two punches, a left and a right. I didn't know which hit me first. The punches didn't hurt me, but when I started to move, my legs wouldn't go with me, and I fell over on my head."

"The king, the master, my idol."

"That man was beautiful. Timing, speed, reflexes, rhythm, his body, everything was beautiful. And to me, still, I would say pound for pound...I'd say I'm the greatest heavyweight of all time, but pound for pound, I still say Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest of all time."

"Robinson's repertoire, thrown with equal speed and power by either hand, includes every standard punch from a bolo to a hook—and a few he makes up on the spur of the moment."

"Robinson could deliver a knockout blow going backward."

"Someone once said there was a comparison between Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson. Believe me, there's no comparison. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest."

"He was a tremendous puncher, with either hand. Knock you dead puncher. Knock you dead. And a terrific finisher."

"Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move you make starts with your heart, and that's in rhythm or you're in trouble."

"He boxed as though he were playing the violin."

"Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife."

"Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head."

"It's gonna be a thrilla, a killa, and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila."

"I had a job to do in the ring, and the businessmen around me had a job to do outside the ring, I did my job by beating up most of the guys they put in front of me and staying in shape, but the people I trusted didn’t do their jobs."

"Ali kept calling me ugly, but I never thought of myself as being any uglier than him, I have 11 babies, somebody thought I was cute."

"Ali always said I would be nothing without him, but who would he have been without me?”"

"Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book."

"A sound body keeps a sound mind."

"I am who I am, and yes, I whipped Ali all three times."

"I respect Floyd as a fighter but come 5 May, he's going to be hurting for weeks."

"He can have heart, he can hit harder and he can be stronger, but there's no fighter smarter than me."

"The greatness of Marciano in the ring was defined by the way he prepared for a fight, his ability to punch and take a punch."