Boxing As A Sport Quotes & Sayings

Boxing is an American sport - a 'so-called sport' to many - in which images of incalculable beauty and violence, desperation and ingenuity, are routinely entwined; the sport that evokes the most extreme reactions - loathing, revulsion, righteous indigation; a fierce and often inexplicable loyalty. — Joyce Carol Oates

My father was an army champion boxer ... in the British army. And so he loved boxing and talked it up as a sport. But then when my brother and I were beating the crap out of each other, he was always trying to tone it down. But I am a fan of boxing. — Hugh Jackman

No American sport or activity has been so consistently and so passionately under attack as boxing, for "moral" as we'll as other reasons. And no American sport evokes so ambivalent a response in its defenders: when asked the familiar question "How can you watch ... ?" the boxing aficionado really has no answer. He can talk about boxing only with others like himself. — Joyce Carol Oates

I don't like any sport except boxing and bull fighting. — David Bailey

This is a sport where attack and defense that uses fists. Opponents punch at each other and block the punches. The goal is to knock out your opponent. Typically, those who engage in boxing are of equal weights and skill levels. — Jenny River

I think boxing is an incredible sport and I would like to see it really become regulated because I think it could bring back a lot of the past. — Dom Irrera

Boxing is a glorious sport to watch and boxers are incredible, heroic athletes, but it's also, to be honest, a stupid game to play. Even the winners can end up with crippling brain damage. In a lot of ways, hustling is the same. But you learn something special from playing the most difficult games, the games where winning is close to impossible and losing is catastrophic: You learn how to compete as if your life depended on it. That's the lesson I brought with me to the so-called "legitimate" world. — Jay-Z

The NBA has a voice that's why they have a lockout. The NFL has a voice that's why they had a lockout. Boxing is the only sport that's individually represented the individual people - Managers, Promoters and Boxers. — Bernard Hopkins

After I knock out Randy Couture, I'll fight for the heavyweight title, the real heavyweight boxing title in October or November, come back and fight in the UFC in January or February. It doesn't matter, I'm a two sport athlete. The oldest man to ever do that. — James Toney

With me, boxing's a beautiful sport. — Nonito Donaire

No physical activity is so vain as boxing. A man gets into the ring to attract admiration. In no sport, therefore, can you be more humiliated. — Norman Mailer

I think we have tremendous media covering the sport of boxing, even if boxing is a little bit lost in popularity with MMA sports. And I think that with the show 'Lights Out' it's going to get more attention to the sport, and it's going to put more attention to the problems that athletes in general have. — Wladimir Klitschko

I developed physically and mentally to take such a big step in my life and in my profession, which is boxing, knowing that it would have pros and cons, highs and lows in this sport that is so macho. I kept this hidden for many, many years. — Orlando Cruz

Anyhow, I don't think Don King's a very good man. But then again, I doubt that a good man *could* succeed in his business. I'm sure boxing was a dirty sport before he came around. He may have just made it moreso. So that's about all I've got to say about him. — Muhammad Ali

I took up boxing as a fitness thing. I got obsessed, and I would go every day when I wasn't working. It's just an insane sport when you get into it. — Lena Headey

Boxing is a mental sport. Think of a prizefight as a chess game of mind and body, and you are a little closer to it than if you compare it to a bloody brawl in an alley. — Budd Schulberg

In no other sport is the connection between performer and observer so intimate, so frequently painful, so unresolved — Joyce Carol Oates

Some of our best fighters are not only Puerto Rican greats but all-time greats of the sport. Carlos Ortiz, Wilfredo Gomez, Wilfredo Benitez and Felix 'Tito' Trinidad and many others have made Puerto Rican boxing what it is today, and I am only an extension of their greatness. — Miguel Cotto

Every day as a kid, I went to the boxing gym. I knew boxing before I knew anything else. And I was once told if you show your child how to do something and you constantly push them, then eventually they'll become masters. They'll become a master of their craft. So that's probably what happened with me and the sport of boxing. — Floyd Mayweather Jr.

People see it [boxing] as a physical contact sport, but it's not. It's really a spiritual one of will against will. Who wants it the most? How much is he willing to take - and dish out - to get it? It's like fighting is 10 percent physical and 90 percent emotional. — Mike Tyson

In the same way I have always regarded boxing as a first-class sport to encourage in the Young Men's Christian Association. — Theodore Roosevelt

There's a lot of dangerous sports. You know, my opinion, football is the most dangerous sport there is. After that I'll give it to probably boxing. Then there's some other extreme sports out there, motocross where you're really risking your neck every time you go out there and do it. — Jon Jones

There's ups and downs with boxing, layoffs are part of the sport and they can either help or hurt a guy. — Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Unlike any other sport, the objective in boxing is chillingly simple: One man purposefully endeavors to inflict bodily harm on another man. — Howard Cosell

Boxing is a sport, but it's also entertainment. I wanted to transcend the sport and be considered just not as a fighter, or a champion, but someone very special. — Sugar Ray Leonard

See, I respect boxing because it has given me so much and that's why I will never allow anyone to mistreat the sport of boxing if I can help it. — Alexis Arguello

Boxing's a poor man's sport. We can't afford to play golf or tennis. It is what it is. It's kept so many kids off the street. It kept me off the street. — Sugar Ray Leonard

Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world. — Frank Bruno

The integration of a headgear in professional boxing would do so much to make it safer for young men. They could go into the sport, make a lot of money and then come out and be good grandfathers. — George Foreman

I started a youth center in Houston. The kids would come in and want to learn to box; they wanted to tear up the world, beat up the world. And I'd try to show them they didn't need anger. They didn't need all that killing instinct they'd read about. You can be a human being and pursue boxing as a sport. — George Foreman

Boxing's a rough sport. After every fight I rush to the mirror to make sure I'm presentable. — Muhammad Ali

I've fought everybody without ducking anyone. I have beaten 10 undefeated guys, and I never was comparing myself to the greatest in the sport. I was not thinking of breaking any records. I'm just enjoying my time in boxing. — Wladimir Klitschko

I run, but boxing conditioning is different, so you have to get used to running in the ring. Boxing movements are very different. Swimming is one of the best because every single muscle is working. I swim a lot. I train very hard at things that mimic boxing. I have to do mostly sport-specific training, such as lots of sparring. — Wladimir Klitschko

Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book. — Joe Frazier

The content and thematic materials of dance is, of itself, like boxing. You play tennis and baseball. But boxing is not a sport you play: you stand up and do it. — Twyla Tharp

After you have seasoned your gloves with the blood, sweat and tears of your opponents, all else is anticlimactic. — Brian D'Ambrosio

I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career. I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud, gay man. — Orlando Cruz

Boxing has always been a primarily urban pastime (whereas the defining suburban sport is auto-racing, in which the machine and its anonymous mechanics hold far greater importance than the driver). When white Americans left the cities, they left boxing as well. — A.J. Liebling

Floyd Mayweather is bigger than the sport. That's the thing. Because you can go to somebody who don't even know what boxing is and say, "Floyd Mayweather." They'll go, "Oh, I know Floyd Mayweather. I've heard that name." — Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I saw women's boxing on television for the first time when I was 18, and that's when I wanted to do it. So, it didn't come from me watching my father. I didn't know the sport existed; therefore, I wasn't really interested in it until I saw it. — Laila Ali

Boxing is a sport. We allow each other to hit each other, but I'm not treating my opponent like my enemy. We're doing a job to entertain people. — Manny Pacquiao

Gene Tunney called Gibbons 'the perfect boxer.' Gene said he learned more about the technique of boxing and punching from watching Mike training in New York gymnasiums and in actual fights in Gotham than he learned from any other individual associated with the fistic sport.
Moreover, Tunney has told me it was Gibbons' clean-cut victory over Jack Dillon, the mighty light heavyweight from Indianapolis, that inspired in him the belief he could whip Jack Dempsey. — George Aaron Barton

It's gone, boxing's gone. What is there in boxing? Who is there to talk about, who is there that people go, "Yeah I want to fight him?", and fans go "I wanna see that fight"? There's Floyd Mayweather, and he is 38, 39, he's maybe got one fight left. What else is there? He'll have a last fight or two and a couple of guys will get a few million dollars, but way less than I'm gonna be getting in future. This sport is getting bigger all the time, and I am making it bigger. — Conor McGregor

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. — Gerry Cooney

Boxing has been great for me because it's, like, my new sport, so it's something that I can get better at. — Gigi Hadid

Boxing is the sport to which all other sports aspire. — George Foreman

Boxing is an all year round sport. You never know when they're going to call you, so you got to stay ready. — Adrien Broner

Jagdish Singh was my basic coach, and he trained me from my very early days in boxing, teaching me the fundamentals of the sport. He was the one who shaped me into a boxer, disciplined me when I required disciplining. — Vijender Singh

I just try to stay half way decent looking. Boxing's a rough sport and you get hit a lot. — Muhammad Ali

Boxing is beautiful brutality, and the devil is in the duality. Boxing is a tug of war and you recognize the antithetical feelings that are pulling you from the other end. — Brian D'Ambrosio

I've never boxed before in my life. I've had one day's training at a boxing gym, and it's an incredibly difficult sport. — Rupert Penry-Jones

There's a confidence and a mental toughness that comes from the very highest level of competition, whatever the sport is. Whether it's boxing or wrestling, or whatever. — Joe Rogan

I've been in the sport of boxing for a long time, but I haven't been able to bring my 'A-game' totally out. I've beaten fighters with my 'C-Game' and with my 'D-Game,' but I haven't been able to beat anybody with my 'A-Game.' — Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Throughout the history of the sport, the heavyweight champion has been ... a reason to talk about boxing at the water cooler. — Teddy Atlas

Boxing, for me, it's the beginning of all sports. I'm willing to bet that the first sport was a man against another man in a fight, so I think that's something innate in all of us. — Omar Epps

Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics. — Gerry Cooney

I have tremendous respect for fighters and I always tell people that boxing in movies is one thing but when you get into the ring for real, even the worst heavyweight in the world is going to murder you. You've just got to appreciate the pain and the suffering and the glory and skill that goes into what they do. That's why I love the sport so much. — Sylvester Stallone

The opportunity and the concept of merging music culture with actual boxing is exciting. It's bringing a younger demographic to the sport. — Curtis Jackson

Some people who love boxing might love Mike Tyson, but people outside of the sport are generally repulsed by him and therefore, repulsed by the sport. — Dick Schaap

Boxing is your father's sport. — Dana White

Boxing is an ego-driven sport. The idea is to not get too personal or emotional with it. You just know when it's over, it's over, and that's it. — Mike Tyson

I understand boxing has been around for so long, and it's old money. The sport has such a history, I just don't understand how it's even a competition though. — Jake Hecht