Heavyweight Quotes & Sayings

I'm the world heavyweight champion. I consider myself a citizen of the whole world. — George Foreman

There are 7 billion people in the world, but there's only one heavyweight champion of the world, and that's me. — Tyson Fury

The mission I set out on in the beginning - to become heavyweight champion of the world, undisputed, lineal champion - you could say that mission is complete. — Lennox Lewis

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali

I'm always telling Don King's people when there's a top-10 heavyweight they've got that needs an opponent, I'm ready. — Mark De Mori

In the old days, when Muhammad Ali was fighting Ken Norton, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, there was a lot of excitement in the heavyweight division, I have to admit it. — Wladimir Klitschko

I have the world heavyweight title not because it was 'given' to me, not because of my race or religion, but because I won it in the ring through my own boxing ability. — Muhammad Ali

My goal is to be the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World. — Evander Holyfield

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

They may be big in Switzerland, but so are yodellers, and nobody wants to watch them fight. Heavyweight title fights should be huge events, not an afterthought in a country most famous for producing chocolate. — David Haye

I'm really excited about my future plans, as I'm doing things differently and currently training like a Trojan in pursuit of becoming heavyweight champion of the world. — Tyson Fury

The Youngest World Heavyweight Champion in History! — Randy Orton

Wilder is not a big draw in the U.S. He maybe sells 5,000 to 10,000 tickets when he's fighting in his own town for the heavyweight champion. — Tyson Fury

It wasn't the bent, nasty, yellow laminated four-by-six card everyone else got but a real heavyweight plastic tag embossed with my name. Jenks had one, too, and he was obnoxiously proud of it even though I was the one wearing it, right under mine. It would get me into the morgue when nothing else would. Well, besides being dead. — Kim Harrison

When I look at the 'Rocky Balboa' film when I played the undisputed heavyweight champion, I feel like art is going to imitate life. I played the champ in a movie and I'm going to become the champ in reality. — Antonio Tarver

Yeah, I thought I could be heavyweight champion of the world when I was working with Ali and Joe Frazier and Earnie Shavers and all those guys. Because they were older than me and I was doing my thing. — Larry Holmes

What a leveller this remote-control gizmo was ... it chopped down the heavyweight and stretched out the slight until all the set's emissions, commercials, murders, game-shows, the thousand and one varying joys and terrors of the real and the imagined, acquired an equal weight ... — Salman Rushdie

The unprecedented 3rd Heavyweight Championship Title won by Muhammad Ali, his final victory, will stand as one of the greatest human achievements in all of sporting history". — Paul Leo Faso

One minute I'm robbing a dope house. Next minute I'm the youngest heavyweight champion of the world. I'm only 20, 19, with a lot of money. Who am I? What am I? I don't even know who I am. I'm just a dumb child who's being abused and robbed by lawyers. I'm just a dumb pugnacious fool. I'm just a fool who thinks he's someone. Then you tell me I should be responsible. — Mike Tyson

That Mitt Romney, he is a master campaigner. This week he was introducing his wife, and he said, 'She is the heavyweight champion of my life. Which may explain why on the ride home, he was strapped to the roof of the car. — Bill Maher

Although I think of myself as the greatest heavyweight, I do respect the legends of the past for what they did. But they are not my heroes. — Tyson Fury

I've been knocked down more than any heavyweight champion in history. — Floyd Patterson

I do practice martial arts, more as a recreational thing, but a lot of my friends have been heavyweight champions the in mixed martial arts world. — Vin Diesel

He spouted out, 'Richy, I've just been talking to a bloke from Blackpool on the phone, there's a boxing show tomorrow night and they are desperate for a heavyweight. Will you fight?'
I retorted, 'Are you joking. I haven't trained for four months; I'll be blowing after thirty seconds.'
He pleaded, 'Howay, man. It'll be a night out down Blackpool. — Stephen Richards

so we went up the hill. then we got into my room and I looked at them both. my pure and beautiful slim and magic little girl glorious fuck with the hair dangling down to the asshole, and next to her the tragedy of the ages: slime and horror, the machine gone wrong, frogs tortured by little boys and head-on car collisions and the spider taking in the ball-less buzzing fly and the landscape brain of Primo Carnera going down under the dull playboy guns of cocksure Maxie Baer - new heavyweight champ of America - I, I rushed at the Tragedy of the Ages - that fat slob of accumulated shit. — Charles Bukowski

It's not my place to compare myself to greats like Tyson, Frazier or men like that. But I would look at a fighter like Evander Holyfield. He's a great heavyweight who worked his way up through the weight classes to become champion and had to beat bigger men along the way. — Wladimir Klitschko

I set out in the beginning to be the heavyweight champion of the world. From a very young age, I was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Nothing else was a problem to me. That's what I'll finish doing. — Tyson Fury

Women are heavyweight boxers; only, they punch with words, not fists. — Matshona Dhliwayo

Do you know why I'm the fastest heavyweight in the world? I'm the only heavyweight that trains underwater! — Muhammad Ali

You don't have to fight to be brave. Millions of good, fine, decent folks show more bravery than heavyweight champs just by getting out of bed every morning, going out to do a good day's work and living the best life they know how against the law of odds. — John Wayne

Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then. — Spike Lee

I've been very fortunate to be involved in all the Super Bowls, to see some World Series, to cover heavyweight championship fights; I've been to the Olympics and seen every sporting event there is. — Will McDonough

A perfect record does not mean that someone is the greatest. Rocky Marciano never lost a fight, but I never hear anyone say he's the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. — Steve Sabol

Mitt Romney, two-time Republican presidential hopeful, boxed former heavyweight champion of the world Evander Holyfield for charity. It was a horrible moment when Romney bit off Holyfield's other ear. — David Letterman

[Tyson] Fury is big and [Wladimir] Klitschko's not used to fighting someone his size. If Fury can stop Klitschko grabbing and avoid that big right hand, he's got a chance. In the heavyweight division, it only takes one punch. — Joe Calzaghe

I want you to stop being subhuman and become 'yourself'. 'Yourself,' I say. Not the newspaper you read, not your vicious neighbor's opinion, but 'yourself.' I know, and you don't, what you really are deep down. Deep down, you are what a deer, your God, your poet, or your philosopher is. But you think you're a member of the VFW, your bowling club, or the Ku Klux Klan, and because you think so, you behave as you do. This too was told you long ago, by Heinrich Mann in Germany, by Upton Sinclair and John Dos Passos in the United States. But you recognized neither Mann nor Sinclair. You recognize only the heavyweight champion and Al Capone. If given your choice between a library and a fight, you'll undoubtedly go to the fight. — Wilhelm Reich

If I'm watching my favorite boxer, and he's just won the heavyweight championship of the world, and he retires, it kind of makes the guy a legend. — Nikki Sixx

Today the biggest decisions I make aren't related to the heavyweight title. They are whether I visit McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, or Jack-in-the-Box. — George Foreman

EMMA: Ah. There you are. You - little
John Sublime: Shhuhh ... Hup. Don't. Please ... My mom met your parents in the Hamptons ... I ... I go through agonies of conscience every time we have to hurt one of you beautiful creatures ... Emma ... I'm doing God's will ...
EMMA: Shut up! I am very cross about this! Very very very cross indeed! I look like a bloody heavyweight boxer! — Grant Morrison

Actually, I was lucky enough; I was a heavyweight, so making weight for me was never that much of a problem in high school. Now, it would just be near impossible, because I'm a little heavier. — Alex Mack

I have always maintained that Iggy Pop is the Heavyweight Champion of Rock & Roll. — Henry Rollins

What could be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're the heavyweight champion of the world? — Rocky Marciano

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

When I started studying for the arias it was like going into training for a heavyweight title fight. — Michael Bolton

I have never seen a heavyweight champion apologize for a knockout — Jock J. Davis

MY greatest regret in life is that I never became the heavyweight boxing champion ofthe world. — Nelson Mandela

My ego thinks I would like to be considered for more heavyweight roles, but the price you pay for that is they are always the same kind of roles. — Steffan Rhodri

I'm going to give the people their money's worth ... true sports entertainment for their dollar. I'm the undefeated IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion making my fifth title defense. The crowd will be with me because everybody wants to be with a winner. — Tavoris Cloud

Upon awakening in the morning, I wondered if the proceedings of the night before had been a dream. It was hard to believe that I was the world's heavyweight champion. — Gene Tunney

The knockouts did not change me as a fighter. I was more of a boxer as a heavyweight. The problem was when I came back to light heavyweight, I lost all of the muscle and I lost all of the energy. I was going for the knockout because I didn't want to go the whole 12 rounds because my body was tired. I couldn't understand why my body was tired and it didn't dawn on me until now. — Roy Jones Jr.

David Haye is too light. Simply too light. He's not a real heavyweight. — Vitali Klitschko

I'm the best fighter in the world. No one can beat me ... My objective is to inflict as much pain as possible, to win and win spectacularly ... Ever since I was 12 years old, I was groomed to be the heavyweight champion of the world. I've been prepared to handle the pressure, the dealing with the press, everything. — Mike Tyson

I'm lining up my troops to go to battle with. Tarver is the man at light heavyweight. He has the credibility of the fans and media, and that's what counts. That's why I am taking this risk, but I am taking it by preparing myself with good people. — Bernard Hopkins

The combination of threads, remote-procedure-call interfaces, and heavyweight object-oriented design is especially dangerous ... if you are ever invited onto a project that is supposed to feature all three, fleeing in terror might well be an appropriate reaction. — Eric S. Raymond

I've been many times to Dubai and the U.A.E., and I have friends that live there. It would be exciting to stage world heavyweight championship fights in the Arab world. It's something Muhammad Ali achieved when he fought in Zaire or the Philippines. It's absolutely exciting to fight in countries where you have never fought. — Wladimir Klitschko

My brother is a professional boxer. Heavyweight? No, featherweight. He tickles his opponents to death! — Various

Do not take on a traditionally built person unless you are prepared for a heavyweight bout. — Alexander McCall Smith

The Internal Revenue Service is the real undefeated heavyweight champion. — George Foreman

Every fight is do or die for me. I've come too far to start over. I'm on a destiny trip right now. I'm racing towards that heavyweight world championship. — Antonio Tarver

One of the biggest obstacles I've overcome in my life was thinking I didn't deserve to be successful. Artistically I'm not as much of a heavyweight as someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell, because I'm not a creator of original music, and I worried about that for years. — Bonnie Raitt

It's possible for the heavyweight champion of the world to be with one woman — Muhammad Ali

When people are tipsy, they're really encouraged and they wanna prove they can do something to the Heavyweight champion. — Wladimir Klitschko

A heavyweight boxing champion who dodges all serious contenders to consistently fight marshmallows is derided and ridiculed - and rightly so. Christians who dodge all serious struggle and consciously seek to put themselves in whatever situations and relationships are easiest are doing the same thing - they are coasting, and eventually that coasting will define them and - even worse - shape them. — Gary L. Thomas

Chocolate Kinder from Germany. My wife is from Germany and once I tasted them I was scared I would have to fight at heavyweight. — Erislandy Lara

Communication is such a two-edged sword for guys. On the one hand, they almost always mean what they say. Refreshing, I know. On the other hand, getting them to actually say it can be like coaxing a corpse to tap-dance. Not that it can't be done. But it's so freaking exhausting. Not to mention the cost in heavyweight fishing line and Savion Glover videos. — Jennifer Rardin

You can be free. You can be black. Look at me! I'm the Heavyweight Champion! Can't nobody stop me. — Muhammad Ali

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

Joe Louis is the greatest heavyweight champion of all time. Rocky Marciano is second only to Louis. Where do I rate Ali? Somewhere below me. I beat him, and if I could beat him, no doubt Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano could have beaten him. — Joe Frazier

A lot of heavyweights, with the exception of a few Eastern Europe fighters, they really look like being a heavyweight is just like, who can eat the most Pizza Hut and McDonalds. — Randy Johnson

I want to bring excitement back to the heavyweight division, — Deontay Wilder

You don't know what it is to be heavyweight champ of the world until you become the heavyweight champ of the world. — George Foreman

Not only will I beat you tonight ... I'll beat you this Sunday and become World Heavyweight Champion! — Oscar Gutierrez

In 1922 everything changed again. The Eskimo pie was invented; James Joyce's Ulysses was printed in Paris; snow fell on Mauna Loa, Hawaii; Babe Ruth signed a three-year contract with the New York Yankees; Eugene O'Neill was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; Frederick Douglass's home was dedicated as a national shrine; former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Johnson invented the wrench ... — Bernice L. McFadden

If you learn to sell, it's worth more than a degree. It's worth more than the heavyweight championship of the world. It's even more important than having a million dollars in the bank. Learn to sell, and you'll never starve. — George Foreman

What had brought me to New York in the autumn of 1972 was a letter of recommendation written by Norman Mailer, the author of 'The Naked and the Dead' and American literature's leading heavyweight contender, to Dan Wolf, the delphic editor of 'The Village Voice.' — James Wolcott

Every punch I threw with bad intentions to a vital area ... I aimed for his ear ... I wanted to bust his eardrum ... Every punch had bad intentions ... My record will last for immortality, It'll never be broken ... I want to live forever ... I refuse to lose ... I would have to be carried out dead to lose ... I was coming to destroy and win the Heavyweight Championship of the World, which I done. — Mike Tyson

Once you get the nod, your mentality totally changes. It's like a heavyweight fighter-you win the title and that's it, you don't want to look back and you don't want to change. That's the way I feel and I'm looking to keep the job.? — Mark Sanchez

I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you. — Joe Frazier

In 1973 I became heavyweight champion of the world with 38 victories, no defeats as a professional. You get to a point where you think you cannot lose. I felt like I had the greatest power with my fists, I was the strongest man in the world. — George Foreman

No expert can predict the heavyweight division. Every punch can make the decision. — Vitali Klitschko

The Booker 2011 is of no more interest to me than the world heavyweight championship, which I'm not going to win either. It's irrelevant. — Edward St. Aubyn

Many people who have been around boxing all those years never had a champion, certainly a heavyweight champion ... For that to happen in one's lifetime is so improbable. I got Floyd Patterson, then, here, at the age of 76, I was fortunate to come in contact with this young man who has, in my opinion, all the requirements to be a champion that I believe he's going to be, maybe the best that ever lived. — Cus D'Amato

I'm playing right now a role, and the role is called the 'Heavyweight Champion of the World.' And it takes all of the time. And I love this role, and it takes a lot of attention for me for the sport, and I just don't want to lose the title, so that's why I have to stay focused and not become an actor. — Wladimir Klitschko

The next election will be a flyweight versus a heavyweight. However much the right hon. Gentleman (David Cameron) may dance around the ring beforehand, at some point, he will come within the reach of a big clunking fist. — Gordon Brown

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

Hemingway and Norman Mailer might have disagreed, but there is no heavyweight champion of literature. — Tom Robbins

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

I am the great test! a blackened shadow-boxing colossus jabjabbered, pounding his gloves against the wall. The heavyweight will be quillweight. Bantamweight, even. Ain't nobody can dethrone me, beyond my ken! he boasted,* sidling up to his shadow.


*Mad Ali?: — Julian Rios

If [the heavyweights] become champions they begin to have inner lives like Hemingway or Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy or Faulkner, Joyce or Melville or Conrad or Lawrence or Proust ... Dempsey was alone and Tunney could never explain himself and Sharkey could never believe himself nor Schmeling nor Braddock, and Carnera was sad and Baer an indecipherable clown; great heavyweights like Louis had the loneliness of the ages in their silence, and men like Marciano were mystified by a power which seemed to have been granted them. With the advent, however, of the great modern Black heavyweights, Patterson, Liston, then Clay and Frazier, perhaps the loneliness gave way to what it had been protecting itself against - a surrealistic situation unstable beyond belief. Being a Black heavyweight champion in the second half of the twentieth century (with Black revolutions opening all over the world) was now not unlike being Jack Johnson, Malcolm X and Frank Costello all in one ... — Joyce Carol Oates

To be successful in sports or business, you really have to live the lifestyle. Success is about lifestyle. Just because I was training and working hard, that didn't make me champion or a good fighter. My lifestyle made me a good fighter. In my mind and my daily life, I was the heavy weight champ when I was 15 or 14. I lived the life of the heavyweight champion, and that's who I became. And that is so much more than just training. So, when the time presented itself, that's who I already was. I was ready. I was already there. — Mike Tyson

That man was beautiful. Timing, speed, reflexes, rhythm, his body, everything was beautiful. And to me, still, I would say pound for pound ... I'd say I'm the greatest heavyweight of all time, but pound for pound, I still say Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest of all time. — Muhammad Ali

Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden. — Joe Frazier

I don't care that no one has successfully defended the (light heavyweight) title. I care about preparation, training and getting inside the cage to fight. — Rafael Cavalcante

I don't need a belt to make me. I make the belt. I feel great and that's all that matters. I'm still heavyweight champion of the world. — James Toney

No matter what nationality or color is champion, we Irish like to say that we have a heavyweight champion, Gene Tunney retired, who can come back and take the title at any time. — Tommy Gibbons

Mitt Romney announced he will fight former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in a charity boxing match. You can tell that Romney is serious about it. Today, his butler gave him a piggyback ride up the steps of the Philadelphia art museum. — Jimmy Fallon

You have to keep your goal in mind and never lose sight of it. I envisioned myself winning the heavyweight title for ten years before I actually captured it. If you're not driven to do your best, you'll never reach the level of excellence in your life. — George Foreman

I was a big light heavyweight but I feel perfect at heavyweight. When I look back at some of my old fights, I was really just a shell of myself. Now I'm healthy and strong and ready to get to the top. — Antonio Tarver

I guess Requiem for a Heavyweight as old as it is was as honest a piece as I've ever done. — Rod Serling

I think a fight with David Haye, even if he is not American, is going to give positive vibes about the heavyweight division for the American fans and fans worldwide. — Wladimir Klitschko