Muhammad Ali is my hero. Yes, he was the best boxer in the world, but he also put himself on the line. He talked when black Americans had to be quiet.

No one's going to hold your hand in the boxing business. And the people who do end up ripping you off.

I've never been to Ukraine, but I have heard it's very dangerous for a black man. There are crazy racists who have already sent me death threats.

I am not interested in fighting against 50 wimps like the Klitschkos do.

Chisora's not a nice man, not a nice human being.

One thing you can guarantee with the Travellers, they've got a lot of heart.

You get these young kids who are training their whole life to go to the Olympics. To go there and not fight someone else like them but fight someone who has might won an Olympics before, been a world champion, and is just coming back to fight some kids, I think is insane.

Mark de Mori is a solid operator.

No flipping tables over any more for me.

Fighting in Germany, Wladimir Klitschko makes so much money for everyone.

Even though he's a moron, I supported Tyson Fury.

Fury said he would rather fight his cousin than me.

I definitely believe if you give me any part of your chin, you are going to sleep.

There are a lot of fighters, when I fight them, they stay hit forever and never fight again.

I spent more than £150,000 on a limited-edition Mercedes SL.

In 2000, I got stuck in the sea off Cyprus after I fell off a boat. I was out there for over an hour. I am not a strong swimmer, but adrenaline kicked in, and I swam back.

I love watching reruns of 'Sex And The City.'

My son's dream is to win Wimbledon - I'd love that.

Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali. You get these rivalries in boxing - not that often, so when you do get them, why do you want to sanitise it?

To beat Wladimir Klitschko, I have to be better than I've ever been.

I'm good at keeping on top of my emotions and not letting them influence the fight.

I would love to have gone there, fight at Madison Square Garden or a casino in Las Vegas, but there are no American heavyweights now who can pose a challenge to me.

Fight fans just want to see the best against the best - if only it was that simple.

Nobody will hold it against him if he cancels the fight with Dereck Chisora - the public aren't interested in that fight; nobody knows who he is. It is pretty sad but shows the mindset of Wladimir Klitschko and why he will go down in history as a heavyweight who just fought the worst possible people out there.

I have the heart of lion.

I eat tall, chinny, Eastern European heavyweights for breakfast.

Whatever any boxer does in the ring, I don't think any reporter should call him a coward. Anyone who does that I lose complete respect for. There's a difference between being a coward and being scared, or apprehensive. Different fighters have got different mentalities.

I seem to get the best out of myself when the pressure's on. My senses are heightened. I feel sharper. I do better things.

Although boxing is a sport, it's still entertainment. You've still got the fear, press conferences, the stare-downs. It's all an act in some ways. My whole life I've been doing it. I love this side of boxing - as much as the actual fight.

I'm a showman.

The bigger the pressure, the sharper I am, the more in tune with my body I am, the better my tactics seem to be. A lot of people crumble under pressure; they do something crazy.

In the lead-up to fights, I'm very relaxed, very calm.

When I'm training, I use heavier crepe for wraps, for protection - but you're not allowed to use them in competition. So when it comes to the fight, the wraps are softer.

It's often my opponent's plan to take me into the later rounds, but the amount of damage that has accumulated on them means they don't hear the final bell.

Winning the title then losing it to John Ruiz... I'd be devastated.

What I want to achieve in boxing is worldwide. I want to show I'm not just a British commodity... To do that, you have to fight the best and fight all over the world.

You need to stay hungry and not allow someone like John Ruiz to come over and mess you up in front of all your fans.

Slowly but surely, as time goes on, people forget about you. People stop talking about you. You stop seeing your name in the papers. I like to believe that I don't think that will bother me. As long as I know I've achieved my goals and people believe I'm the best at what I do, then I'll be happy.

My performance against Ruiz was a good one - there were plenty of knockdowns, excitement, and drama.

If I hit the Klitschkos with the same shots I was hitting John Ruiz, both of them would go over.

Bernard Hopkins is one of my idols.

I want to knock out both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, and I don't care what order they fall in.

It's boxing. It's about getting people interested. If I didn't say some stupid things from time to time, there wouldn't be that many people interested in me. But I let my fists do the talking when the bell rings.

I always told everyone I'd be heavyweight champion of the world one day. They'd say, 'All right, whatever.' I said, 'OK, you'll see.'

I was actually very fortunate. I think I was actually the only kid in my class at one stage that actually had a father in the home.

It was always about being first, about winning. There were no prizes for second place. My mother and father said, 'Do whatever you want, as long as you're the best at it.'

The boxing public aren't interested in knowing me. They want to know The Hayemaker, the one who gives it big.

To me, being heavyweight world champion and Olympic sprint champion are the two greatest prizes in sport.

I always fight better when my opponent's angry.

You can't fight if you're nervous.