25 Great Boxing Quotes

1. "Every time I hear the name Joe Louis my nose starts to bleed."  - Tommy Farr

2. "You'll pardon me gentlemen if I make the fight short. I have a train to catch."  - Sam Langford (who then knocked out his opponent with one punch and promptly left for the station)

3. “It don’t matter, as long as he can count up to ten.”  - Sonny Liston (when asked which referee he’d prefer for his fight with Floyd Patterson)

 

4. “Yeah, I've been KO'd. Once. By a Mexican bantamweight.  Six of my buddies were swinging him around by the heels at the time.”  -  Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb

5. “Because the ref counted to ten. They’ll generally stop it when they do that.”
- Gene Fullmer’s manager Merv Jensen (when Fullmer asked why the referee stopped his fight with Sugar Ray Robinson)

 

6. "You're damn right I do. I'm in Madison Square Garden getting the shit knocked out of me."  - Willie Pastrano (when asked by the ring doctor if he knew where he was)

 

7. "They call Ray Robinson the best fighter pound for pound. I'm the best fighter ounce for ounce."  - Willie Pep

 

8. “This guy might nail me.  You want me to get a conclusion?”  - Maxie Rosenbloom (when his manager told him to open up)

9. “I don't try to intimidate anybody before a fight. That's nonsense. I intimidate people by hitting them.”  - Mike Tyson

10. “How many guesses do I get?”  - Chuck Wepner (to the referee who asked how many fingers he had up during a fight)

11. "Always work the ref's blind side."  - Fritzie Zivic (known for his underhand tactics)

12. “Stick your thumb in my eye if you have to, Mr Greb, but don't take the name of the Lord in vain.”   - Tiger Flowers (to Harry Greb mid-fight. Greb said afterwards “I stopped cursing him.  And I stopped thumbing him too.”)

13. "To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography and the dancers hit each other."  - Jack Handy

14. “I’ve got a problem with my legs. They just can’t walk past a chippy.”  - Ricky Hatton

15. “It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the size of the fight in the dog.”  - Barry McGuigan

16. “I made a lot of mistakes out of the ring, but I never made any in it.”  - Jack Johnson

17. “Never fight ugly people - they have nothing to lose.” - ‘Irish’ Wayne Kelly

18. “Count ten over him – he’ll get up.”  - Wilson Mizner (manager of Stanley Ketchel, on hearing that Ketchel had been shot dead)

19. “If a bullfrog had wings it wouldn't bump his behind every time he hopped.”  - Don King

20. "The three toughest fighters I ever fought were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Robinson. I fought Sugar so many times, I'm surprised I'm not diabetic."  - Jake LaMotta

 

21. “Why waltz with a guy for 10 rounds if you can knock him out in one?”  - Rocky Marciano

22. "He hit me 18 times while I was in the act of falling."  - Max Baer (on his fight with Joe Louis)

23. “I'm like the drunk in the bar who wants just one more for the road.”  - Archie Moore (on his ring longevity)

24. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”  - Jack Dempsey

25. "To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy."  -
Cus D'Amato