Rocky Fielding Quotes

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

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.

I boxed 15 years in a club.

No, I've never competed. I did, however, train in a boxing gym with a good coach beginning in 1993. I'd been writing about the sport for a dozen years by then and wanted to know what boxers endured, what it felt like. I was too old to compete when I started, but I sparred enough to get a taste.

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

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.

Tyson Fury and I go back. He won the amateur championships the same year I did.

My first four fights in amateur at middleweight, and the first four professional were at welterweight. And I just kind of went down from there.

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

I'm somebody from a little tiny town, who had boxed in leisure centres, and my last fight was in Madison Square Garden against one of the greats. What a great way to finish off.

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

This kid [Janks Morton, Jr.] was so special, although he's not a kid anymore, obviously, but he was there from day one of my rise through boxing. You know how the years go by and then, when you stop to reflect, you realize that someone was a part of your whole evolution as an individual? That's what I share with Junior.

Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.

When I won the Golden Gloves in 1960, that made me realize I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.

When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.

My dad was actually a college boxer at L.S.U. and a good one, too. He was the captain of the boxing team.

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'm very experienced in four-round fights because of my amateur career, and I've got a high work rate.

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

Yes, I think about having a career in boxing, but I want to start from the bottom, start from zero. I want to get ranked and one day fight for a belt. I don't want to fight just to fight, for money, to go after big fights and challenge a great champion.

I realised that I could either fight and get into trouble on the street or I could fight and get paid in the ring. I chose the ring.

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.

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