Juan Manuel Marquez Quotes

I was 11 when I started boxing. My brother was fighting before I did, and he got me into it.

I boxed 15 years in a club.

Boxing was the only career where I wouldn't have to start out at the bottom. I had a good resume.

Everything in our family was always boxing. It was the life my father chose for me.

My mother used to box, and I followed her footsteps into training. She loves fighting.

Everything I have in this world, I owe to the sport of boxing, and I won't ever forget that.

We use the term 'fight' very lightly - 'I've been fighting so hard to get my car, I've been fighting so hard to get that job, I've been fighting so hard to get that girl.' But the reality is boxers do fight bitterly to get whatever they want or whatever they need in life, and most of them come from nothing, which is the case of Roberto Duran.

I first got into boxing when I was quite young. I was about 12 when I won my first boxing match.

When I was younger, I actually stepped foot in a ring for the first time at 8 years old because of my dad.

For the birth of one champion, there are many young boxers behind them who had setbacks. In terms of that, I think boxing is very dramatic.

I got into boxing because I wanted to fight Tyson.

I grew up in a gym in Miami, the one where Muhammad Ali trained. I had 142 amateur fights and lost three.

I ran into a couple of guys who were boxers. They talked me into working out at their gym. I became obsessed with boxing and the idea of becoming a champion.

Boxing is individual, although there's a team concept because you need a great corner, you need a great trainer, you need a great prep man, you need all of these things, but it's more of a Mano a Mano; it's more you versus me. I miss that time in training camp and Dad and Mom cooking meals. It was one big family.

I'm not like a full athlete. But I'm definitely a boxer.

I was fighting at 125 pounds when I was 15 years old... then became a champion at 126 pounds at 25 years old.

I've been boxing since I was eight, and that's a long time to take punches day after day.

I always said as an amateur that I'd want to one day fight and beat Kindelan because he was the best out there.

Middleweight is my category.

I worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer. I did demolition work, was a postman, was a tiler, a plasterer. I even sold double-glazing door-to-door. But I always dreamed of being a world champion, first of all as a boxer.

My dad loves boxing, so he used to hold up his hands when we were little kids, and we would punch his hands, and he slowly got us little gloves, and little punching bags that he'd always hold for us.

My dad always wanted me to box because he saw a career in it for me.

My dad was a prize fighter in his youth. My boxing skills are very limited. I did train for most of my youth but couldn't really see the point of getting punched in the head. I'm a lover, not a fighter, but I do enjoy the sport in its purest form. As a child, my heroes were my dad and Muhammad Ali.

I will be a complete man, a complete athlete, with a fight with Roy Jones Jr.

When I was 15 years old, I left school and became a professional boxer.