Joe Calzaghe Quotes

When I was 17 or 18, I realised I could do something with boxing.

Yeah, I thought I could be heavyweight champion of the world when I was working with Ali and Joe Frazier and Earnie Shavers and all those guys. Because they were older than me and I was doing my thing.

I got messed up between my fight with Ken Norton and my fight with Larry Holmes; I got messed up with alcohol. I needed at least a year more experience, with three or four more fights before I fought Holmes. But I couldn't get any fights. Don King had all the contenders, and unless I signed myself over to him, I couldn't get a fight.

If I would've fought Andre Ward in my prime, I would've beat him.

If I had the medical clearance to fight, I would want to fight the best. The best would be Mayweather.

I have experience of boxing. I know what it is like to be hit. Half my life is boxing. I start fighting when I am 16.

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

When you start boxing when you're 7 years old, that's your dream, to become world champion, and after that you want to become something bigger than world champion.

When I boxed against Jeff Lacy, that was one fight that I was so proud of.

I'm not going to say that I'm the best, we respect our champions. Floyd's been doing this a lot longer than me, he's been a lot of mega fights and I won't dare say that I'm better than Floyd Mayweather.

I didn't watch one tape on Pacquiao. There is no reason to study him. He's not at this level.

My father was champion of North Africa and he beat the European champ. He was very good, a professional for 12 years. We're from a big family of boxers. My father has seven brothers.

I started boxing when I was eight. Me and my brother Rafael started boxing in amateur tournaments when I was 13. My father was an ex-pro boxer.

But as an amateur, the highest level you can box at is the Olympics. I did that at 18 and felt it was time to move on to other challenges as a professional.

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

My father was a boxer, though. So, I have a particular interest in Ray Mancini, I think.

I already know what boxers do; I've been in it all my life. I know what they do, and I know how they prepare.

Bernard Hopkins? He fights scary dirty. I mean, he did what he had to do in his career.

After doing boxing a little bit, I knew that I wanted to achieve what the other boxers were achieving: the championship and whatever comes with the championships.

I remember when I used to go to York Hall and just watch, and I'd be like 'how are these people doing it.' Even though I was an amateur boxer at the time, I was like 'how are these guys fighting professionally in this arena?'

I got the who's who in the boxing world; I've been training with the Lomachenkos, the Terrence Crawfords.

I've competitively boxed. It's definitely Plan B for me, but I know how to box.

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

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