BoxRec

I was trying to think of some of the most famous quotes made by fighters or about the fight game. Here's a few I remember off the top of my head-
"Southpaws should be drowned at birth." - Maurice Hope
"DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!" -Howard Cosell
"Maricon!" - Benny Paret

Some of my favorites,

"(He) called me a rapist and a recluse, I'm not a recluse." - Tyson

"He's a guy who gets up at six O'clock in the morning whatever time it is."- Lou Duva on Adrew Golota

"If you thought the world was surprised when Nixon resigned wait till I whoop Foreman's behind." - Ali 1974

"Sure there have been deaths in Boxing, but none of them serious"

Alan Minter

Eddie Simms immortal line against Joe Louis is a classic in my opinion. After clambering up from a first round knockdown at the hands of Louis in a non-title fight, Simms was asked if he was okay by referee Arthur Donovan. "Sure," he replied. "Let's take a walk - anywhere - up on the roof."

A couple from the immortal Randal "Tex" Cobb:

"If you screw up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, its your ass, darling".

"Philadelphia's the only place in the world where you see two winos fight on the street and both are jabbing".

Isn't the " southpaws should be drowned at birth"-quote originally from Rocky 1?

I don't remember, but I recall Gil Clancy attributing that quote to Hope.

Willie Pep to Rocky Granziano: "You couldn't have hit me with a handful of gravel if you were standing two feet away from me!"

Ali on Joe Frazier:"He's too dumb to be psyched out."

And despite his image, Sonny Liston actually had a pretty quick wit as the following quotes demenstrate.

On the $250.00 pricetag on ringside seats for the first Ali fight:

"I am glad I will be in the fight because I couldn't afford to pay to watch it!" :P

On Ali's ability:

"As a fighter he should be locked up for impersonating a fighter." 8)

On the second Ali fight in Lewiston:

"I forgot to get up."

Everybody loves Cosell's "Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!," and it is great. But in the Frazier-Ellis fight three years earlier Cosell yelled, with the same intensity, "Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis!" When I first saw that fight a couple of years ago I thought, "Gee, that sounds familiar."

Another one from Tex Cobb - at some boxing function / dinner that featured many of the best boxers of both the past and (then) present day, many of them black, Cobb stood up and said to the group, "I'm really proud to be here tonight with some of the baddest n----rs in the world." To which Renaldo Snipes shot back, to his credit, "I refuse to sit here and be called a n----r!" Cobb's response? "I wasn't talking about you, Snipes, I was talking about the bad ones."

Everybody loves Cosell's "Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!," and it is great. But in the Frazier-Ellis fight three years earlier Cosell yelled, with the same intensity, "Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis!" When I first saw that fight a couple of years ago I thought, "Gee, that sounds familiar."

Another one from Tex Cobb - at some boxing function / dinner that featured many of the best boxers of both the past and (then) present day, many of them black, Cobb stood up and said to the group, "I'm really proud to be here tonight with some of the baddest n----rs in the world." To which Renaldo Snipes shot back, to his credit, "I refuse to sit here and be called a n----r!" Cobb's response? "I wasn't talking about you, Snipes, I was talking about the bad ones."

Geez, now I know why I see double posts sometimes... sorry about that.

The "n" word in the Cobb quote reminded me of Ken Norton's quote after witnessing the Foreman-Lyle bout: "Those n-----s were FIGHTIN'!"

"Shavers is the fighter in the black body, Cobb is the fighter in the white body."
- Ken Norton while commentating Shavers vs. Cobb

"After losing both my amateur fights I decided there was no future for me in the amateurs, so I turned pro."
- Tex Cobb on how his careers started

"Even though my name is Iran, I never did."
- Iran Barkley on his fighting style

"I'm very well thank you, how are you?"
- Naseem Hamed answer to the ringside doctor following a round in which he was knocked down

"I don't get paid for overtime."
- Lennox Lewis after KO'ing Michael Grant in two rounds


Alister

Alister wrote:"Shavers is the fighter in the black body, Cobb is the fighter in the white body."
- Ken Norton while commentating Shavers vs. Cobb

"After losing both my amateur fights I decided there was no future for me in the amateurs, so I turned pro."
- Tex Cobb on how his careers started

"Even though my name is Iran, I never did."
- Iran Barkley on his fighting style

"I'm very well thank you, how are you?"
- Naseem Hamed answer to the ringside doctor following a round in which he was knocked down

"I don't get paid for overtime."
- Lennox Lewis after KO'ing Michael Grant in two rounds


Alister

Lewis stole that quote from Lloyd Honeyghan after his KO of Johnny Bumphus.

My favorite from James Quick Tillis:

"I got off the bus in New York, put down my bags and raised my arms, saying - New York here I am!!"
I looked down, and my bags were gone!"


Ed Schuler "When Iron Mike gets out of jail, who would you rather be, his first comeback opponent or his first date?"

Here's a few more:

"My father was a boxer and my mother was a Rotweiler."
- Chris Eubank

"Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing!"
- Don Turner giving instructions to Evander Holyfield between rounds

"No more bodypunches!"
- Roger Bloodworth giving instructions to Andrew Golota between rounds

"First I got under his chin, and now I've gotten under his skin."
- Hasim Rahman on why he and Lennox Lewis had seperate weigh-ins prior to their rematch

"I made 60 million dollars while fighting for Don King. If that's being cheated out of money, please, cheat me some more."
- Larry Holmes

"Whenever we played hide and seek when we were young, no one would go looking for Jake. That's how popular he was."
- Rocky Graziano on his childhood friend, Jake La Motta

"Next time I will send him to the mourge."
- Roberto Duran when told that one of his opponents was taken to hospital following their fight

"He tried to knock me out and make me look like a fool in front of his hometown. That pissed me off!"
- Michael Bentt after KO'ing Tommy Morrison in one round

"I don't what Chavez' skin is made of, but I'm sure you could make one heck of a sofa of it."
- Larry Merchant after seeing Julio Cesar Chavez come out without a scratch after colliding heads with an opponent

Broncano wrote:A couple from the immortal Randal "Tex" Cobb:

"If you screw up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, its your ass, darling".

"Philadelphia's the only place in the world where you see two winos fight on the street and both are jabbing".

I have one more from Randall Cobb.

A reporter asked him "What do you say to your critics who have called you a fat, lazy, low-class coke snorting alcoholic?"

Tex replied "Who's fat?"

lol I remember all those Cobb quotes. He was a classic.

Can't recall the source for this one:
"I can always tell when Bob Arum is lying. His mouth is moving."
Anyone know who said that?

Larry Holmes - "I would love to get Foreman in the ring. I'll prove that George should stay home in the kitchen with his grill machine - which is a rip off. All you have to do is tilt the pot to get the grease out - you don't need a Foreman grill to do this. Stop the farce George."

"Ding!!, Ding!!, Ding!!, Ding!!!!!!"

Whoever was in charge of the bell at the beginning and end of each round during Pryor-Arguello I.

I always liked the story about Zab Judah's trainer freaking out just before Tszyu landed the KO punch.

"Jab Zudah! Jab!"

Speaking of Pryor-Arguello I, remember this?:
"Gimme the bottle! No, the one I mixed!" - Panama Lewis

crooked nose wrote:Speaking of Pryor-Arguello I, remember this?:
"Gimme the bottle! No, the one I mixed!" - Panama Lewis

Hehe. Here's another one from that fight:

"Alexis, he had other championships even if he lost this fight. Me, if I don't have the championship, I got to work for $4.95 an hour".

-Aaron Pryor

Joey Maxim on his fight with Sugar Ray Robinson:

"There was no air conditioner in my corner!"

Maxim was referring to the fact that it was over 100 degrees in the ring and Robinson finally collapsed. Referee Ruby Goldstein also had to be carried out of the ring due to the heat.