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January 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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THE QUOTES OF 1998
HARRY MULLAN presents the things they said - and may have wished they hadn't |
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BRIGGS: being clocked by the Punching Preacher was a religious experience
- Get Big Pic He doesn't know how to fight, he doesn't know how to stand and
he's wide open as the Holland Tunnel. Only two things - Jones's right and his left. He hit me so hard I thought I saw the Messiah. I'd rather go a whole month without a girl and win a world title
than take a chance. I'm not crazy about going to Tijuana to fight a guy from Tijuana
who holds a belt from a Mexican organisation during Mexican independence celebration week. I love boxing. I don't want to hurt anybody - it's just the way I
make my money. Something I learned early in my career is any time a guy hits you
and makes you dizzy, your best bet is not to stand up and be a big hero but go down and
get your head together. I've made a lot of money and I've saved a lot of my money. I'm
gonna run me a grocery store and live happily ever after. More than anything else, boxing taught me how to deal with fear.
Boxing prepares you for life. You never experience terror until you've done that. In
boxing there is the fear that you are going to get physically hurt, so when you're in a
play and the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, you can say to Hell with it, I
can deal with that. Basically, he's a mouthy git who's trying to be something he ain't
and it looks pathetic. To be honest, I wouldn't even bother talking to him if we were in
the same room. For me, the drugs and alcohol started when I was 12. But I'm not
just talking when I say I don't know that person today. It's like I'm talking about
somebody else. When I realise it's me, I'm so ashamed. I didn't even realise I wasn't in my own home until I went to go
upstairs to bed and saw there were no stairs. The lady is not only beautiful, sensual, voluptuous and
intoxicating, but she can fight. Tommy was a womaniser like nothing you can imagine. They would
throw themselves at him, including some of the most gorgeous women around. I guess you can
only beat them off with a baseball bat for so long. For better or worse, Danny and Johnny [Tapia] are tied at the
umbilical cord until the day they die. I'm in the ring with this guy who's trying to take my head off,
and I'm thinking of how I'm going to decorate the baby's new room. I lost my focus
sometimes. Carl King couldn't run a parking lot. When a white family works together and is successful, nobody
complains. When I work with my family, it's a conflict of interest. I've seen tougher croissants. I knew Keith had the right stuff. After all, he's from Brooklyn. I
just could not understand how they made a guy from Brooklyn a 10-1 underdog. That doesn't
make any sense at all. His career has been completely misguided. The guy has 12 title
defences and nobody knows him. They put him in New York, where there's more Puerto Ricans
than they have in San Juan, and Don King had to buy 14,000 tickets himself or they would
have had 1,500 people there. This is America. It's different. It's not like England, where you
can fight a tuna fish and get $2, $3m. All boxers have a touch of madness in them. They all have to have
a little craziness. I don't need an American Express card because I never leave home. The only fight for Holyfield is Lewis. Who cares if the WBA strip
him? We'll go to Tiffany's or Harrods and get a belt made up, real jewels, not plastic or
glass - a real belt with real stuff on it - and give it to the winner. I was a contender for almost a couple of decades and knocked on
the door a few times, but am I satisfied? Hell, no. If you've never been champion of the
world you can't be satisfied. Once you make it in the pros in football, baseball or hockey
you could be the 1000th best in those sports and still make a decent living. But if you're
the 1000th best in boxing, forget it. The worst thing that happened to managers was when boxers learned
to read and write. At least we know Toney's going to make the weight. This is one of the biggest nights of my career, because I've seen
all of Satan's agents all around - evilness is everywhere in this arena - and Henry did
like a catharsis, a cleaning thing, and they had to clear out. I cannot search my soul and think that there's any reason not to
fight 15 rounds for the title. That sets you apart. The heart won't stand too much more of that. This is money. Ain't no bank in America won't cash this. What is clear is that it's about time Larry Hazzard, Jersey's
undisputed boxing boss for the past 14 years, got a boss of his own. Chances are there's
more hidden in his closet than just a collection of lilac and lavender suits. When I was champ it really bothered me that there were all these
people around who I didn't know but who were trying to control my life. I lost the title
and they all disappeared and I got depressed. I drank so much and then I pigged out. After
I got out of hospital, for the sake of my health I took up boxing. Has there ever been an
irony like that? If I was broke, how long would it take me to make $200m? A year? My mother got in the corner because she used to yell so loud
outside the ring my father had to bring her in so he wouldn't be embarrassed. It's been
great. To win the heavyweight championship of the world with them by my side my corner
would truly be something. What Naz doesn't realise is that he'll never be a champion, the
way he's going. It's not just about having a belt. Being a champion is being humble; being
a champion is carrying yourself and behaving yourself correctly, not being bolshie. Even if we made a big thing out of it, subpoenaed the scorecards
and somehow got the decision reversed, Miguel Angel wouldn't want it that way. He says he
will put his trust in his fists, in the Lord and in El Presidente Sulaiman. I owe no apologies for not being a subservient puppy. That's
what's expected of you in boxing, but I refuse to be treated like a piece of meat. Even though I was with a lot of women, I always thought I could
tell a classy lady from a trashy lady. But you can't tell by looking at somebody that they
got this disease. One dyes it, the other buys it. I brought Frank Warren back from destitution and ill-repute to
high esteem and stature in the boxing world. Absolute bullshit. He suggests the arse was hanging out of my
trousers when we met. People forget I had 15 years with ITV. - Don King and Frank Warren go to war George Foreman's a self-serving phony, a surly guy who
unfortunately has people snowed, but you never heard me say he wasn't smart. I was too easy-going. I was able to look at some of the people who
had been around me and ask what they had really been there for. I've got no
money now and they're not here. When you're black, any place in Mississippi is hell. I didn't want to risk my life. On the third knockdown, I was really
protecting myself. I thought of how good Pryor is and I said: 'Jesus, I
will stay here.' Boxing has an advantage over politics. In the ring you know
exactly what your opponent's intentions are. They're beautiful. Women are great. But pleasure is pleasure and
business is business. Right now, if they get near me, I kick 'em down the stairs. Money is
more important now. No woman is worth a million dollars. And if one was, I'd say screw the
money and give me the woman. It gives the fighters one less day to pull out. I was once on a diet for two weeks running. All I lost was two
weeks. I got caught with a lot of good shots [in my career], but they
didn't bother me. All they did was make me mad, and then it's time to go to work. If you haven't been hanging around me before don't try to hang
around me now since I've done made it. That's why you never see me with a large entourage.
All they're gonna do is suck you up, and you only have one chance of a lifetime to make it
this big. I'm gonna be smart with my money, invest it the best way I can. I didn't have it tonight, and it won't be any better tomorrow. The reason I'm doing this is for the love of my profession.
There's nothing like the challenge of going one-on-one with an opponent in the ring. I'm amazed now when I think back to some of the things I did to
make the weight. I just can't believe it. It shows how strong the mind is. When you really
want to do something, the power of the mind of unbelievable. In the first round I hit him and he laughed at me. In the second,
I hit him and he sneered. In the third round, he knocked me out. They [her would-be rivals] are not very smart by saying I'm a bad
fighter. If they do fight me, then so what if they beat me? They beat a bad fighter. You're a nigger 'til you die. If you're a poor nigger, you're a
poor nigger; if you're a rich nigger, you're a rich nigger. And if you get to be educated,
you're just an educated nigger. You understand? I remember how he threw that famous left hook. It went swooooosh,
sounding like a bullet passing my head. That's when I started thinking what I had to do. I
didn't want to get hit by that left hook, so I knocked him out. If someone doesn't know I'm a boxing champion, I don't tell them.
Then when they find out, they're mind-boggled. If more light were shed on stories like
mine, it would be good for the sport. Goodness doesn't sell. You got to go to jail or kill someone in
the ring before you "deserve" to be champion. People want people in the sports
world to have a bad life. Sending Don King to jail for wire fraud would not have given
Muhammad Ali back his health, Mike Tyson back his money or Tim Witherspoon back his
career. Somebody else might not have made it. They would have gone crazy
having to deal with everything. The toughest part is making decisions all the time, giving
answers and having to deal with people who just want you for your money. It's all combined
and it's all too much. Mike McCallum has one of the five great chins in the world: the
other four are on Mt. Rushmore. |
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