Larry Holmes
I train myself. I don't have trainers who want hundreds of thousands of dollars to train me. I hire who I want to put the grease on my face, to rub my neck and rub my back, to take my mouthpiece out and rinse it off and put the mouthpiece back in. And then I go about my business. And if they want to say something, they can give me little reminders. All you need are reminders. You don't need 'big-time' trainers.Collection: Giving
I don't like Larry Merchant. He thinks he knows everything about a sport that he was never in. He walks around with papers and studies what he writes, he just pisses you off.Collection: Sports
Whether I make two dollars or no dollars, it's better than losing. I've got enough people playing the games at the casino that I don't lose any money. So it's good for me, and it's fun.Collection: Fun
I cursed [Larry Merchant] out once, and I told him that he was a phony.Collection: Phony
I don't think Mike Tyson's a bad guy. I think the people, the media, makes him out to be a bad guy.Collection: Thinking
I'm tired. I am old and I have never quit pursuing my goals. I am heavily involved in real estate right now, but I am trying to get out of it altogether, I am just tired.Collection: Real
Tex Cobb would call me every day after we fought, I got sick of talking to him. I liked him a lot as a fighter, and as a person, and feel that sometimes he was misunderstood.Collection: Talking
I don't see anything happening [in heavyweight division] when I watch these fights, they are very boring. Not only that, but you never heard of any of the fighters.Collection: Fighting
That guy [Floyd Mayweather] is throwing his money around like there is no tomorrow.Collection: Guy
I always enjoy myself fighting in Mississippi. I enjoy myself fighting anywhere.Collection: Fighting
I did a job, [Don King] took money, probably more than he should have. If I was supposed to get $10 million, I was lucky to get $6.5 million. It happens and you can't do much, you decide whether to take it or leave it. King was a promoter, and he was good at it.Collection: Kings
I think a lot of people like to gamble, and they don't want to go to the casino to gamble. Sometimes they want to do it in the privacy of their home. They can't concentrate the way they want to in a gambling casino.Collection: Home
I think Roy Jones is a great fighter, a great puncher. But you know, he doesn't use the jab. But he's got everything else going for him. The problem that hurts Roy Jones in the boxing business, in the celebrity business, is his attitude. Attitude hurts, because you say a lot of things that you probably don't really mean and you say them because you don't want to be put down. But you've got a lot of people who don't like what you say, and that hurts. And that's what Roy Jones has been hurt by. That's what I have been hurt by.Collection: Hurt
I think gambling can be a good thing if you don't take it too seriously. Take it and have fun with it, and don't lose what you can't afford to lose.Collection: Fun
Oliver McCall was someone who I never really got to know too well, and he had some well-publicized problems.Collection: Problem
Mike Tyson always had a big heart, but one of his problems is that he's short. And he's got kind of a personal attitude. But that don't make him a great fighter.Collection: Attitude
Mike Tyson does a lot of things that shows he wants to win. He might hit you after the bell, he might hit you a little low, but he wants to win the fight. I think if he controls himself, he's okay.Collection: Fighting
The media loves to take things like that [Rocky Marciano couldn't hold my jockstrap] out of context. There was no harm meant when I said that, but plenty of harm came from it.Collection: Media
Let people live their lives, as long as they don't hurt anybody. As long as they don't destroy their own lives.Collection: Hurt
Kenny Norton hit me so hard that it still hurts. Now there was a case of two fighters who did not like each other.Collection: Hurt
Don King doesn't care about black or white. He just cares about green.Collection: Kings
When Don King's fighters lose their titles they come back fighting on the undercard for peanuts. King owns all the top heavyweights and we spar against each other but we get charged for it and that comes out of our purses.Collection: Kings
Don King is a hip exploiter, an intelligent flesh peddlerCollection: Kings
Don King was good to me through my years as champion, but I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. He's a wheeler dealer and you've got to be careful. He's a great con artist.Collection: Kings
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.Collection: Boxing
Earnie hit me harder than any other fighter, including Mike Tyson. He hit me and I was face down on the canvas hearing saxophonist Jimmy Tillis.Collection: Hearing
Muhammad Ali could take a very good punch. He was slick, he could move, he could hit, make you miss, good hand speed and combinations and one of the greatest fighters of all time in my opinion.Collection: Moving
Tyson is a lot better than I thought, a lot better. People can talk about Spinks all they want... Tyson is the true champion.Collection: People
When you constantly hear people talking about going the distance, going the distance, you can't help but wonder about it. I learned a lesson: next time I will fight my fight without that doubt.Collection: Distance
Now I'm free of him and I'm light as a feather. There's no weight holding me down; I'm ready to spread my wings and fly.Collection: Light
I think a trainer is very important at the beginning of a fighter's career. A fighter needs to know how to throw a left, throw a right, how to duck, how to do certain things. Over time, you don't really need a trainer. You've got to train yourself. You've got to motivate yourself. And I don't think anybody can put that in you.Collection: Thinking
Boxing is already stable, as far as the opportunity to fight, opportunity for fighters to step inside the ring and make some money - I think that's OK, that's fairly legit. I just think fighters need to be represented when it comes down to making sure the "i" is dotted and the "t" is crossed.Collection: Fighting
You never heard of any of the fighters [in heavyweight division]. It is very hard to watch. It upsets me to turn on my television set and never be able to look forward to a good fight in that weight class.Collection: Fighting
I'm not a guy who counts cards. I'm a guy that plays with feeling. Because I feel that if something is going to come up, it comes up; if it doesn't, it doesn't. And a lot of people get pissed at me because that's the way I play but that's the way I learned to play - with my feelings.Collection: Play
Joe Louis was a good Heavyweight, good boxer but he was kind of in the same boat as Marciano, weighing about 190 to 200 lbs.Collection: Heavyweights
I don't know if I have any regrets, I have had a pretty successful life. I have learned good, bad, and ugly.Collection: Regret
I think the world is changing. And it's changing so fast that people have to change with it.Collection: Thinking
[My] worst habit: Drinking too much Budweiser when I get angry.Collection: Drinking
If you don't follow Don King, you get stepped on.Collection: Kings
Don King ain't a bad guy. He cut my earnings, but I don't hold any hard feelings toward him.Collection: Kings
Leading up to the fight [Trevor Berbick] took every opportunity he could to badmouth Larry Holmes and I just blew up. After I beat him in the ring, he tried to get me going again, saying he deserved another fight, wasn't happening.Collection: Fighting