Look at what happens to fighter - even the best of them. Joe Louis ended up a doorman at Caesars Palace. He was in a wheelchair at the end. Sonny Liston died in this town, a drunk and a junkie with no money. Even Ali, look at Ali. I love Ali but when they introduce him at my fights I look away. Sure, they cheer him, but where's his beauty now, his speed, away, his talent? It's gone, it's gone. You ask any boxer, whether he's Muhammad Ali or me, whether he's from Brooklyn or Britain. In the ring you're in the hurt business. Getting hurt, giving hurt - like always, dreaming of getting out to a better place, but you know you're never gonna stay there long. So I got no illusions about boxing, none. This is a brutal business. It's the hurt business. But I'm a fighter - that's all I can do. It's my destiny.'
