“Some people like going to the pub; I enjoy going to the gym.”
“I try and maintain a little bit of fitness, man.”
“Sometimes your dreams come true.”
“When you’re a man you try and be macho.”
“People need to have compassion for others.”
“But when you actually go in the ring, it’s a very lonely and scary place. It’s just you and the other guy.”
“I want to stay healthy, keep fit, eat well, keep a low profile and be a good dad.”
“Sometimes when you have bipolar you have days you are grumpy and not feeling yourself.”
“I like going to the gym every day.”
“Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world.”
“I ain’t got no right to judge someone.”
“If you’re not balanced, your mind’s not balanced… my fuse went.”
“When I came into boxing, I brought it to the next level with adverts and doing pantomime and people just got jealous of me doing that.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting emotionally involved with a woman.”
“I speak African. I can even speak Italian.”
“Journalists have always written that my mum said that I punched a hole through my cot when I was three years old. I don’t remember doing that, and I think it was more that I was very energetic.”
“I didn’t play a great deal of sport in primary school. It was not until I went away to boarding school in Sussex that I really got into sport.”
“There’s enough pressure in life without seeking competition. That makes it double pressure.”
“I still get invitations from all over Europe to speak at dinners, and it’s an honour that promoters and charities can use me to create income.”
“Mental illness is a very powerful thing. If it is with you it is probably going to be there until the day you die. I am trying so hard to break mine, but it is not easy. It is my toughest fight ever.”
“I don’t normally watch myself on the telly.”
“I am just working on staying alive.”
“If your brain’s not right they have good people at the NHS to help you fix it and talk to and counselling to calm you down and to focus you.”
“My trainer, George Francis, used to train a lot of African boxers. They’re hungry guys, man. They’ve got no trainers, got nothing. They’re so hungry to do boxing, to make some money.”
“Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world. You’ve got all the fans, lots of hangers-on jumping up and shouting different words. But when you actually go in the ring, it’s a very lonely and scary place. It’s just you and the other guy.”
“My head has got regrets, but I haven’t.”
“Being sectioned was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Mental illness can happen to anybody. You can be a dustman, a politician, a Tesco worker… anyone. It could be your dad, your brother or your aunt.”
“If you say you’ve had a nervous breakdown or things aren’t right mentally, people run away from you. They think you’re from ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,’ you know.”
“I’m not really a cutter-off sort of person. I’ll chat to anybody.”
“I still believe in marriage.”
“Boxing is a buzz, but I went into it to make a living. I wasn’t going to go into the ring and get punched in the head for the fun of it.”
“People take the mickey out of mental health, but it is very delicate.”
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