Pre-fight Routine Quotes

My dad would always give me a Snickers before a fight. It gives me energy. It gives me everything I need to get the win.

Everyone has a few little quirks in their preparation - I just tend to do the same sort of things as I did in previous competitions - but there's nothing too weird, sticking with lucky knickers or socks! For instance, I'll see my family the day before a fight but won't see them on the day.

I don't need to concentrate or meditate before a fight. I'm the kind of guy who'll be having a laugh in the dressing room 10 minutes before the fight - that's me.

After making my notes in the afternoon, I usually visit the fighters in their dressing rooms before they go out. I check what colour trunks they'll be wearing and sometimes the pronunciation of their names, particularly if they're from eastern Europe or Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia. I'll make sure I write those out phonetically.

The state of mind of a fighter is so important. I don't like to see a fighter stay locked up in a room. Sometimes it works against them. They think and they worry. They dwell, sitting in that dark room. You come back and they're psyched out. I like to see boxers eat and then walk, mingle with people. You have to have a certain amount of movement.

It's the warm-up in the changing room when I switch on. I don't even think about the fight until then. Some fighters are bouncing about the walls, but I switch off. Then it's like someone flicks a switch in me.

We do the weigh-in, then go for a walk, then have breakfast, then I listen to worship songs on my iPod because I'm a Christian. I always read the same Bible verses, too. We do the same warm-up a lot of the time as well. But, I have no superstitions before a fight.

Before British title fights, I've played football on a Saturday before; it's silly as it is.

After about 25 fights you don't always have to keep going to the bathroom before the fight.

For girls it raises your testosterone, so I try to have as much sex as possible before I fight.

Normally, I would run with a group of guys in my camps. A couple of days before the fight, I would run by myself. That was my time to choreograph the fight in my head, so I needed to be myself.

Most fighters are nervous before they go out there. Nervousness makes the body tight. I don't like that. I want to fight with a normal feeling. That's why I move the fingers, shoulders, everything. I try to move like spaghetti.

Before I step in the Octagon, I pray one last time and take a huge deep breath, and then I'm home.

The first thing I do when I book a fight is I go to the Internet and I print out a picture of the guy and put it on my refrigerator.

I listen to Frank Sinatra before my fight a lot, and I also listen to Orisha music, so both of those, I need, it's weird. It's a weird combination.

I like listening to Method Man before fighting.

Every fight day, I just stay in my room the entire day, and I just stay in bed. I sleep as late as I can, which usually isn't very late; I'm kind of an early riser. But I try to just stay there in bed. I don't usually eat the day of the fight. I don't eat until after the fight.

I'm superstitious about my hair. I don't like to cut it before big fights.