John Irving Quotes

I don't think your ability to fight has anything to do with how big you are. It's to do with how much anger is in you.

I thrive on physical confrontation. It's a competitive juice in me. I'm always going to have that in the back of my mind. So whether I'm 49, 59, 69 or 109, I'm always going to think that I can go out and compete.

In real life I have conquered my worst fears by fighting and beating bigger wrestlers in dangal. So I am not afraid of anything.

I'm small but quite tough. When incensed, I can swing a punch.

It's not just the physical aspect of boxing, it's the whole fighter mentality that has been ingrained in me through the years as a competitive athlete. One of the hardest things you'll ever do is to box - to get into the ring and to face off with somebody whose whole goal is to knock you out, to hurt you, and to be able to fight back.

There's something very... spiritual about fighting. It's physically very challenging. It's for killing people, after all, so it's taught me how to look at something head on. It's like living - confronting something. Everything for me came from films.

I always equate wrestling to having been in the Marine Corps.

I've always been a fighter - it's always been a part of my personality.

A lot of the fighters will say you'll know if a fighter's won or lost just by a fighter's eyes - whether they're scared of the other person.

My father taught me how to fight when I was 5.

I'm a strong fellow.

I didn't know how to throw a punch - why would I? Who knows how to throw a punch? Now I do it all the time, and it makes me feel strong.

Lets be honest: I'm an athlete, not an entertainer as much. So as an athlete, I am a guy who likes the physical confrontation of the football field. I like playing nose-guard; I like having two 350 pound guys trying to rip my head off.

People might think that because I'm skinny and tall, I'm fragile. But I always knew I wasn't. And it's comforting to know that I can throw a proper punch if I have to.

I want to fight only dangerous guys. Whenever I've done that in my career, I've stepped up and risen to the challenge.

It's not for everybody, and some of the toughest people I've ever met in my lifetime, I met in the wrestling ring.

My first boxing experience came at around 14. There was always confrontation in the area I grew up in. My mentality, I'll be honest, was if someone tries it with me, I want to be able to knock them out.

You need to be a complete fighter - the heart, the chin, the toughness. You've got to have it all.

I've never cared who I fight. And that's something I just say - 'I'll fight anyone' - it's something I've lived up to my whole career. And I'm proud of that.

I can take a hit, I know I can hit back twice as hard.

I've always been told that if you spar with another man, you try and emulate what a real fight is going to be like. So you go hard. It's how I've always been.

I know I can fight. I know I have kicks that can destroy people. Just because I haven't gotten in the ring in my career, that doesn't mean I'm not capable of crushing people.

I want to be strong. I want to be able to hit people. I want people to be able to bounce off me. When I go out there and play, I play to intimidate people. If someone gets hit down by me, they're going to think twice about coming near me again.

Boxing is dangerous. Anything can happen, so you need supreme confidence. That's why I represent myself like nobody can beat me, because I need to truly believe it.

It takes a very tough man to play defensive line at any level of football, but to be able to do it on a Division 1 level, or a professional level, it takes that intensity, that aggression, and you have to be tough.