David Haye Quotes

I think on balance, Don King has been bad for boxing. I think he's done some very good things and I think he did a heck of a job of promoting Ali but I think I could have promoted Ali.

Joe DeGuardia, I love that guy. He's not a superstar promoter yet, but he will be. He was a fighter himself; he's staying the course with these guys. He's developing some good fighters out there. I really applaud him whenever I get a chance to.

I don't see you making a movie about Bob Arum.

My team members are Hector Soto, who is a boxing promoter and Vice-president of Miguel Cotto Promotions. He runs all my business. He was the person that my father left in charge of it all. Bryan Perez is my right-hand man.

If you look at my career, towards the end you will see I was fighting like once a year. I was not part of the Don King top heavyweights, so I was kind of kept out. His guys were getting three to four fights a year and I could only get one.

I became a professional boxer because I want the attention and interest to come back to boxing. I want people interested in boxing. That's very important to me.

It makes me very, very happy to get someone a world title shot, which I've done with a few fighters, or a European title shot or a British title, and I see them lift that belt above their waist and they come to me and say 'Thanks Ricky. I've just paid my mortgage off with that.' That's what its all about.

When Mike Tyson was only 18, his managers used to market him on posters, reminding you that if your grandfather had missed Joe Louis, or your father Muhammad Ali, don't you miss Tyson.

My personal feeling is that Bernard Hopkins has never been an industry boy.

It depends on my promoter Bob Arum.

I watched a Katie Taylor interview, really interesting and then Eddie Hearn barges in! "Oi, hello, apples and pears!" You should be promoting your fighters, not yourself. Technically I'm more of a promoter than you are.

Anyhow, I don't think Don King's a very good man. But then again, I doubt that a good man *could* succeed in his business. I'm sure boxing was a dirty sport before he came around. He may have just made it moreso. So that's about all I've got to say about him.

Boxing's in my blood, so I'll always stay involved in that, and I'll probably do a bit of TV work as well, commentary and that.

Promoters need you. You don't need them... The boxer has the leverage, and a lot of boxers don't know that.

I grew up watching the careers of Tyson and Bowe. I always wanted to follow in their footsteps in becoming a world champion. But I've always been my own man.

Any promoter who wants to put me on their card, I'm willing to fight.

Boxing's a business, and I've got a great team around me who have been looking after me in that sense.

It's always been my goal to fight the best fighters out there, and I look at Amir Khan as one of the top fighters in my division.

To make it in boxing, you must captivate the fans in America, too.

I want to be remembered as the man who changed the pay scale for featherweights, who put the sparkle back in boxing after Muhammad Ali left, the man who took risks with his ring entrance, the man who, before the fight, would do a front flip into the ring without even thinking about turning an ankle, and then knocking his man out. I mean out.

Laila Ali is boxing's real-life million-dollar baby.

I still respect Anthony Joshua and I'm a big fan of what he did in boxing.

I don't even want to fight Pacquiao now because Pacquiao fought Jessie Vargas, Chris Algieri, Jeff Horn... They were talking that Terence Crawford wasn't a worthy enough name for Pacquiao. Why are those guys worthy when a fight with me and him would've been bigger than any of those?

America is the mecca of boxing, and they've had some great champions here. It's good to establish your skills and let people know what you're about in the States.

Only time will tell whether the Klitschkos need me more than I need them. They won't believe that. But it depends what they want out of boxing. If they want guaranteed easy victories, then they can do what they've always done, but if they want a tough challenge, you'd think they would want to beat down my door.