Emanuel Steward Quotes

There's a very big difference between being fit and being fight fit. Sparring is the only way to get fight fit. It's a very important part of boxing and something that I do as regularly as possible.

Boxing is not a bodybuilding sport, plain and simple. Your body isn't going to win a fight.

In the beginning of my all my camps, I do just boxing.

No matter how much cardio you do - running or biking or whatever - it's never the same as being in the ring.

With experience in boxing, you learn how to be a scientific boxer and how to fight easy.

I do shadow boxing and use a heavy bag, but I don't spar with anyone.

Roy Jones and Muhammad Ali are the inspiration for my style of fighting.

With my style, training is very rigorous. You're toe-to-toe, getting beat on six days a week for five or six weeks leading to a fight. There's no fun, no glamour.

I'm a good fighter, a good boxer.

Even the basics of learning how to throw a good punch is very hard.

It's all about training smart.

We'd always said boxers shouldn't lift weights. Now I realize some champion boxer started that rumor. I noticed if I did weights a couple of times a week, I would be able to hit that jab a lot longer. After sparring, everybody's gone, and I sneak into the weight room. Spend 40 minutes in there lifting weights.

I never got into training to be an All-Ireland boxing champ or to win a belt. At the start, I just got into it to learn how to defend myself when I got into situations.

When I trained for 'Creed,' I had about a year in advance to know what I was doing before. So I lived like a fighter, you know? I went through the workout routine, the diet, training with real boxers, training with real trainers, did the whole thing.

When I first got into the sport it was all about who could cut the most weight, who could be the biggest on fight night. That's the same era when you're sparring 10 five minute rounds, new partner every two and a half minutes, that era of just really hard weight cutting and really hard full contact training.

I've been boxing since I was 7 years old.

And since my father started training me, he always explained to me how important footwork is and how strong your legs have to be.

When I was competing, I would run daily 20 kilometers, and in addition to that, I'd put in many hours of fighting and sparring. That's why I was always able to keep the speed in the ring. I would train so hard that sometimes it was not only hard to stand up, but it would also be hard to lay down.

Pro wrestling has absolutely helped my fighting.

I've been working a lot on my jab.

I think CrossFit is highly beneficial to any athlete, in any sport.

You're just taking punishment every day, getting hit all the time. That's something we're going to cut back on. I'll train hard but the sparring will be cut in half.

I'm really into boxing - I have a personal boxing trainer in New York.

The physique will show in the punches.

As a fighter, you need to constantly improve. So that's what we've been doing: constantly improving striking, grappling, wrestling - there's always different aspects to improve.