If I hadn't had the talent, the networks wouldn't have televised my fights. No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues.

No one but myself thought I could beat guys like Tommy Hearns or Roberto Duran.

I was not from a middle-class family at all. I did not have middle-class possessions and what have you. But I had middle-class parents who gave me what was needed to survive in society.

I came from nothing and achieved humungous fame and fortune. But I worked hard. I had discipline and determination. I had that ice in me.

I've never believed in tying myself up in a long-range contract, and I've been very outspoken on that subject.

To say what I would have been if I wasn't boxing, I don't know why, but I always wanted to be an x-ray technician or a substitute teacher. Those two occupations always stuck with me, maybe because my substitute teacher didn't give us homework, or because I've always had x-rays of my hands.