Tony Bellew Quotes

When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up.

My education was paid for by the RAF Benevolent Fund, so a charity school, run like an orphanage, with uniforms and beatings. It was tough, but it got me to Cambridge - like being a chrysalis suddenly becoming a butterfly.

America is fascinated with seeing people have nothing and turn it to something.

I came from abject poverty. There was nowhere to go but up.

If I wasn't a champion, I'd still be in jail. That makes me try very hard.

I had to overcome challenge after challenge in order to take my life from nothing to living my dreams.

Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.

I could have easily gone down the wrong path and dropped out of school, but I was given a second chance.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.

I went to a failing school, and by the grace of God, my mother was able to put me into private school, and had she not, I would probably be in a gang or dead right now, because that was the road I was going down.

If I can go through what I've been through and do a television show with my son and then be a boy from the hood making records for the people I make records for, that's reality.

I've had the school of hard knocks, and I've worked my way up to be the governor of this great state of Connecticut.

I don't remember anything from the Bills. It was rough there, but it is what it is. Now I'm here in the Super Bowl, just trying to enjoy that.

I came from nothing really to something; I came from the gutter to making the gutters.

Hard times always lead to something great.

I struggled to get through high school. I didn't get to go to college. But it made me realize you can do anything if you want to bad enough.

I've had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn't write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

I am extremely proud of my rags-to-riches story. It's fun to be a misfit or an underdog if you acknowledge your gifts and befriend your obstacles.

There's a big difference between where I came from and the NFL. Things like this don't happen to people from there often. It just took a lot of hard work and dedication, staying on the right path, believing in myself, and having an inner drive.

I basically came from nothing and turned my life into something.

When you come back on top after you've fallen, it's a better story.

I think I created my own narrative, being a guy who kind of got chewed up and put through the grinder and coming out on top.

I was at Watford and got a knock-back when I was 16 and didn't get a YTS contract. They said I could find another club or go in and train three times a week after school. I'd been there since I was 10, so I got my head down and proved them wrong. Within a year, they had signed me up, and I haven't looked back.

I dropped out of school; I got fired from my job. Those were my roughest moments, but I always knew through it that I was going to be great.

In adversity, there is opportunity. Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity. I've never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity. Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger.