Boxing Politics Quotes

I think a fight with Errol Spence is easier to make than Lomachenko because of promotional reasons.

There's a lot of politics in boxing and it's destroying the game.

I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did.

I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you.

I won't wait for this Joshua-Wilder-Tyson Fury nonsense and become a pawn in their negotiations.

Cassius Clay must be beaten and the Black Muslims' scourge removed from boxing.

I feel ashamed tonight that we treated Lennox Lewis the way we did because he gave it all his effort but everytime Don King's involved, you can expect a draw to come from somewhere. Ask Pernell Whitaker about the Julio Cesar Chavez fight...I thought Evander Holyfield gave a very game effort, but you win some and you lose some...tonight I'm upset because Lennox Lewis did not lose and it was not a draw. It's as simple as that.

Ali vs. Stevenson would have served as a symbolic battle between the United States and Cuba, capitalism and communism: Castro's values instilled in his boxers pitted against the values of 'merchandise' boxers from the rest of the world.

The fans pay our wages and I want to give back to the fans. I have been telling them for ages that I want big fights and they haven't believed me. They don't know the politics that go on behind the scenes through no fault of my own.

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.

Looking back, I couldn't get enough fights because Don King owned most of the top 10 fighters, and he never gave me a fight.

I love boxing, but there's a business side. I don't like a lot of people in the sport.

One can construct a strong legal and ethical argument for minimizing the fees that are paid to world sanctioning organizations in conjunction with championship bouts. It's not uncommon for skilled fighters to be denied championship opportunities while less-talented but better-connected boxers fight for belts.

At one time, when I was first starting, when I was first champion, I wanted to be undisputed champion so I could hold all the belts and no one else could say they were champion. Then you realize the boxing business, the politics, get involved and it's not very likely you can accomplish all that.

The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.

Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.

It's been frustrating. Since I've broken into the top five, I've seen the politics of fighters dodging fights, cherry picking fights and this that and the other.

Vitali [Klitschko] does want to fight me, but his promoter wants to be bigger than him. This is another situation of politics in the sport.

We put our life on the line to fight for them, put on a show and these guys take our money so whatever happens to Bob Arum, Don King or anyone else is fine with me.