I have an amazing fan base. I also have an amazing amount of haters: believe who don't believe, people who don't want me to succeed. I don't really mind having those people around. If anything it's actually a good thing for me because it keeps me in the gym, keeps me working hard - knowing there are people out there who don't want me to succeed.

I have seen the consequences of what can happen in boxing.

It's the referee's job to stop the fight. I'm in there to win, defend myself, and further my career.

I'm fighting because I want to be the best and I want to beat the best and I want to make a name for myself. I'm not fighting because I want to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

If you're fighting for any other reason than wanting to be the best in the sport, then you're not going to make it.

I was nervous my first fight, my heart was pumping at 1,000 beats per second.

Any fighter who is serious about boxing wants to be in those big fights, fighting the best fighters, with the whole country watching and talking about it.

There is nobody that I wouldn't fight.

Froch is like a train who just comes forward but Groves will move about, fake and feign and his good footwork is a big part of his game.

My father is my inspiration.

I've always been told that if you spar with another man, you try and emulate what a real fight is going to be like. So you go hard. It's how I've always been.

I always stayed on top of my schoolwork. I did it because I had to and because I had a strict father. He made sure I did my homework and told me not to mess around in class.

Outside boxing, I did well in cross country competitions and I won a schoolboys' doubles badminton tournament at once. I was pleased because it was a hobby to me.

In England I played everything - swimming, athletics, football, rugby, badminton, cricket - all of that stuff. I was in the first teams for all the sports at Brighton, played on the wing in rugby, and ran 100m, 200m, 400m, and did long jump and even the javelin at one point. In the States I did a bit of track, but mainly I was there for the boxing.

I went to Brighton College, Shoreham College for one year, then to Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas for a couple of years.

Boxing is an entertainment business.

Some people call me arrogant and boo me but I love it, because at least they're buying tickets. Meanwhile, other people are thinking, 'wow, this guy's different, I'll come and see him again.'

What I learned from my father is that to win is number one, but you've also got to have a flavour.

There's a very big difference between being fit and being fight fit. Sparring is the only way to get fight fit. It's a very important part of boxing and something that I do as regularly as possible.

You can hit the bags, the pads, and you can run and do your fitness and your weights as much as you want, but if you don't spar you just don't have that true experience, that true knowledge of how to beat a man in one-on-one combat.

To be able to perform at a high level, to be able to do things that no other fighter can do, you have to practice it. And the only way you can practice is by sparring, by fighting another man.

If you're throwing punches or exerting energy but you're not breathing, you're holding your breath. That actually saps your strength, it saps your stamina.

You learn from every bout.

When you are fighting a man who is over a stone heavier than you, you feel it. You feel it in the punches and in the clinches.