I've had a long, long road with lots of ups and downs. But that's all behind me now.
Gerry Cooney
I'm a real person. I have real feelings. I have real thoughts. It's a quality people like about me. They can reach out and touch me. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. So when the fighter is through, he is through. While he was fighting his management was very excited for him, but now that he is done, that management team is moving on.
I saw my brother have an altercation one time. He hit a guy with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. He not only knocked the guy out, but out of wind. That stuck with me. It scared me.
I have a Roman nose. It roams all over my face.
I learned a lot from the Holmes fight. I learned about styles and the pressure. I'm more prepared now.
Drug abuse is a very difficult disease.
When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.
I've spent most of my life in prison. I was a prisoner of my fear and my low self-esteem.
Anytime somebody climbs up those steps into the ring, they have a heart.
I was a left hooker, and I loved hooking. I also really liked to jab and mix it up right away.
I believe in my abilities as a fighter.
It's like I had two things pulling at me: you want to be a fighter, and you have problems. So I couldn't be a fighter, and I wasn't solving any problems.
It takes a strong person to admit he's got problems. Things are bugging you, you've got to get it out. Life is supposed to be peaches and cream, but it doesn't turn out that way. I sometimes found things confusing and sometimes didn't understand how things can be so difficult.
Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren't working out, you say, 'Let me step away for a while.' But the fire still burns.
Some have made boxing a terrible thing to be around.
People haven't seen enough of me. My fights haven't gone the distance, and people have a lot of questions. I want to find out for myself as much as the people do. I want to find out what I can do.
Too many fighters stay in the game for too long. They stay because it's awfully hard to walk away from the roar of the crowd. Really hard. You live for that and so you stay too long. And you might have a wife and kids to feed. So you keep fighting because you don't know how to do anything else.
If my son wants a boxing career, I won't stop him, but I definitely won't push him. It's bad for a kid to be pressured.
I feel like a pro now. Before I fought Holmes, I felt like a rookie.
I believe in myself. I want to be a fighter. I want to be heavyweight champion of the world.
I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time.
I was lucky. I held on to some of my money. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after boxing. But I found what I wanted to do.
My career got sidetracked after fighting Holmes.
They said if I'd fight a ranked contender, I'd get a title shot. I did that, and the next day they changed the rules.
You can have more than one career, but you only have one family.
I don't care about the critics. I took a lot of nonsense. I got stuck with silly labels like 'White Hope.' What about other guys like Tex Cobb - they never had those labels?
When I hurt Norton, I got scared. I looked to the referee. But in the same sense, you're a fighter: you gotta have the killer instinct.
Winning the Gloves made me believe I was somebody.
For every athlete, the roar of the crowd goes away, and we have to learn how to turn the page.
I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.
I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.
Roberto Duran was the kind of guy who was a true fighter and you hardly see guys like that anymore.
Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.
You take that walk from the dressing room to the ring and that's when the real man comes out. Then you climb up those four stairs and into the ring. Then finally, you can't wait for the bell to ring.
When somebody used to compliment me, I'd spend 10 minutes trying to talk them out of it.
When you bottom out, you have to stand up and get going again.
I don't overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more 'Hail Mary' punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position.
I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they'll need to really pay attention to it.
About 99 percent of fighters end up broke. F.I.S.T. helps them turn the page and find new goals.
You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing.
Most fighters, when they're finished, boxing turns its back on them.
It's tough waking up in the morning and reading derogatory stories about you.
By the time you're 30 years old, you can be on a nowhere street, if you're not careful.
Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.
I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me.
Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning.
Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.
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.
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.
