Boxing is one of the most popular sports on the planet, with millions of fans across the globe tuning in for the biggest fights.
According to ESPN, approximately 50 million people in the United States alone watched Floyd Mayweather fight Conor McGregor in 2017 – and boxing continues to flourish and thrive three years later.
Over the years, boxing has developed and sporting icons have emerged. From Muhammad Ali’s infectious charisma to Tyson Fury’s heroic comeback story, boxers have managed to paint the sport in various lights.
Here, we take a look through some of the best boxing quotes and comments in the history of the sport.
Muhammad Ali:
“You can be free. You can be black. Look at me! I’m the world heavyweight champion! Can’t nobody stop me.”
Muhammad Ali:
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
Muhammad Ali:
“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.”
Tony Bellew:
“Boxing is the only thing I’ve ever understood. I certainly don’t understand women.”
Tony Bellew:
“You don’t brag about putting someone in hospital. It’s absolutely horrible.”
Drew ‘Bundini’ Brown:
“We gon’ float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. AH! Rumble, young man rumble! AH!”
Frank Bruno:
“Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world.”
Michael Buffer:
“Let’s get ready to rumble!”
Dereck Chisora:
“If David [Haye] doesn’t fight me, I am going to physically burn him.”
Dereck Chisora:
“I’ve lost six fights and people wrote me off but you can’t write me off. I’m like herpes. You think I’m gone and then I pop back up.”
George Chuvalo:
“He went to the hospital with bleeding kidneys and me, I went dancing with my wife.”
Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb:
“I don’t think his hands could take the abuse.”
Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb:
“If you screw things up in tennis, it’s 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, it’s your ass.”
Howard Cosell:
“The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali, because very honestly, I don’t think he can beat George Foreman.”
Cus D’Amato:
“To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy.”
Oscar De La Hoya:
“Once, I was at a party. This was a time when it seemed like I had everything. I was young, I was undefeated. I had money and had just moved into my own home. People at the party were laughing and having fun.
"I missed my mother, I felt to lonely. I remember asking myself, ‘why isn’t my mother here? Why are all these people around me? I don’t want these people around me’. I looked out the window and started crying.”
Jack Dempsey:
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.”
Roberto Duran:
“I’m not God, but I am something similar.”
Roberto Duran:
“Getting hit motivates me. It makes me punish the guy more. A fighter takes a punch, hits back with three punches.”
George Foreman:
“The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.”
George Foreman:
“Sure, the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.”
Joe Frazier:
“His mouth made him [feel] like he was gonna win. Not his hands, I had my hand. He had his lips.”
Tyson Fury:
“Mental health has got to be the biggest battle I’ve ever fought with, more than any opponent.”
Tyson Fury:
“I’m a gypsy – no education, no schooling, nothing. I don’t care what people think of me. I don’t care about being a hero, a role model, a champion.”
Tyson Fury:
“It’s not about how much money I’m getting paid. It’s just a love of one-on-one combat. I feel I’m at home. I love the ring entrances, the talking. I’m the master of it all.”
David Haye:
“You’re going to get violated in that ring. I am going to close the curtain on the joke that is the Audley Harrison show.”
David Haye:
“He is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I have watched Lord of the Rings and films with strange looking people, but for a human being to look like he does is pretty shocking.”
Evander Holyfield:
“A champion shows who he is by what he does when he’s tested. When a person gets up and says ‘I can still do it’, he’s a champion.”
Jack Johnson:
“The possession of muscular strength and the courage to use it in contests with other men for physical supremacy does not necessarily imply a lack of appreciation for the finer and better things of life.”
Anthony Joshua:
“When you are around people who have money, you realise money isn’t that impressive, it’s about your class, morals and how you conduct yourself.”
Anthony Joshua:
“People have built me up to be untouchable, unbeatable, invincible, and I’m not that. I am a man, and I am a winner, but that can change in a second.”
Anthony Joshua:
“In boxing, it is about the obsession of getting the most from yourself: wanting to dominate the world like a hungry young lion.”
Don King:
“Only in America.”
Jake LaMotta:
“I fought Sugar so many times, I’m surprised I’m not diabetic.”
Sugar Ray Leonard:
“It’s different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman and that takes something away from it.”
Joe Louis:
“Once that bell rings, you’re on your own. It’s just you and the other guy.”
Lennox Lewis:
“In boxing, you create a strategy to beat each new opponent. It’s just like chess.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr:
“He can have heart, he can hit harder and he can be stronger, but there’s no fighter smarter than me.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr:
“I fight for that check. I’m in the check cashing business.”
Larry Merchant:
“There are too many governing bodies. They’re all corrupt. I think they have replaced the old Mobsters with the kind of ‘corporate rule’ of boxing.”
Ferdie ‘The Fight Doctor’ Pacheco:
“They only made one mistake, they signed this fight.”
Sugar Ray Robinson:
“Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move you make starts with your heart, and that’s in rhythm or you’re in trouble.”
Mike Tyson:
“I want your heart. I want to eat his children.”
Mike Tyson:
“The [temptation] for greatness is the biggest drug in the world.”
*Credit for the main photo belongs to John Rooney / AP Photo*
