It's a beautiful sport, boxing, when you're winning and everything is going well but when you hit the lows it really upsets you.
For me, it was very important to be part of a boxing film that actually explores the psychological aspects of the sport, more than just the physical aspects. I haven't seen boxing movies very often that really go so deep into the minds of the boxers. It really puts out how much it is about strategy and tactics and technique.
I did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it.
I was always scared in the amateurs, but the minute I got in the ring it was like another person took over. I become more vicious. In there I love to hurt people. Outside I can't hurt a bug.
When I was an amateur, I would go to knock guys out in the first minute. When you get experience, you know it doesn't work like that.
I could never say that fear really gets to me. I'm not one of those fighters like Nigel Benn who says, 'I thrive on fear.' I walk through fear.
I learned very early on once I started boxing as a kid that if you go into the ring emotionally charged you make mistakes. It's a mental game, it's a chess match, you've got to think, you've got to strategise and make tactical decisions.
You not only have to box smart, you have to be ruthless in the ring.
I'm perfectly fine with Pacquiao the Christian wanting to separate Mayweather from his senses.
I think the reason I hadn't fought was just the aftermath of the Botha fight. You put so much into a fight, and people just talk about it like it was a bit of a farce or something.
In order to understand the mindset of a boxer, I needed to become a boxer myself.
I understand the psychology of the sport, especially inside the ring.
Fighters remember that one-punch KO. Something clicks, and they lose it. They don't wanna be knocked out. It happened to Roy Jones.
If people want to say nasty things that's a good thing in a way because it means people will underestimate me come fight night.
So many fighters who fight Golovkin have lost before they've entered the ring.
I understand the psychology of the sport, especially inside the ring. From bell to bell, from when my entrance plays and I step through that curtain, people have to wonder what's going on inside that guy's head.
My intention was to fight Durán ASAP because I knew Durán's habits. I knew he would indulge himself, he'd gain 40–50 lbs and then sweat it off to make 147.
