For me, I believe George Foreman was a bad example because when he became world heavyweight champion again at 42, that made a lot of fighters think they could also carry on.
Marvin Hagler
Well, you can't trust most people in this game, period; it can be a very shady business.
I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started.
Some fighters know when to stop on their own and go on to something else, and then some fighters have nothing to go back to after they are finished. Some fighters still have the burning fire and feel that they just need to try one more time. Few can do it.
I trained in Provincetown, Mass. Back then, they didn't have all the tourists on Cape Cod. Very isolated. Very good spot. I called it the jail. All you could do was train, run, walk, talk boxing.
There are a lot of things and in order to be at the top and maintain your focus you have to have something that motivates you. For me, it was what I perceived as a lack of respect from the boxing world as well as the media, which made me want to work so hard and be great.
It is a great feeling when you lay down at night, and you know there are little kids out there imitating you, and people want to know what you eat and when you go to sleep.
Sitting here now today, I can forgive a lot of the English people because it only takes a hand full of bad people to do something stupid like that and it can make the whole country look bad.
The likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns were true champions. There were some incredible fights between us, and I was happy to give them all an opportunity to fight me.
Sugar Ray wouldn't give me a rematch, and that's the reason I walked away from boxing.
I like acting very much because I don't get punched, and it's not real.
I know that when a fighter is out of the ring for more than two years, when he comes back he isn't the same anymore. Each fighter is different. But each must think, even if something goes wrong, 'I have to make this decision and live with it for the rest of my life.'
Oh yeah, I mean every fighter has got be dedicated, learn how to sacrifice, know what the devotion is all about, make sure you're paying attention and studying your art.
Even though the outcome wasn't the way it should have been, publicly I still feel in my heart I won the Sugar Ray Leonard fight.
When you knock people out, it's sometimes a very scary situation - but I always hoped that no one got seriously hurt. Now when I see them get knocked out, I laugh. When you finish the game, it's funny. And when I look at film of myself, I think, 'I wouldn't fight that guy.'
I want to advance myself in some areas. I want to go into broadcasting, be a boxing commentator and still get to travel, and I want to take courses so I can speak better. I want to take courses in business and promotion.
In boxing, there's no more secrets today. Technology is such that you know everything about everyone.
These interviews, sometimes they jog your memories, like what you were doing when you were 10 years old. They're always searching for your past; they can keep you living there. I want to go on to the future.
In some ways that fight gave me more respect around the world and helped me be even more popular because so many people felt my pain and saw that I was robbed.
People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me.
You know looking back on it now I used the fight and after the fight as motivation, to make sure I was going to be the best middleweight in the world for a long time.
You know, I think I had a great career; there's not much I think I'd do different other than get a title shot much earlier. I didn't get one till 49 or 50 fights into my career.
The situation right after the fight wasn't too good; I believe I'm still the only champion in the world who never received the belt inside the ring once you've won the title. I held that against the English fans for a long time but I felt that also motivated me.
I tried my best to ensure I kept the respect for the middleweight division in the tradition of Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake La Motta.
No one is the same after I fought them - Hearns, Duran, Leonard. All of them.
Fighters remember that one-punch KO. Something clicks, and they lose it. They don't wanna be knocked out. It happened to Roy Jones.
I'm going to keep on being Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
