I don't have to fight if I don't want to.
— Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Everything people say I couldn't do I've done.
There's ups and downs with boxing, layoffs are part of the sport and they can either help or hurt a guy.
I loved competing and winning and also wanted to continue my career for the fans, knowing they were there for me and enjoyed watching me fight.
Everywhere I go, I will make a good payday. But we got to choose the right opponent and the right time and the right venue.
Boxing is real easy. Life is much harder.
I would lie in bed, and I was nine years old, and say to myself: 'I want to be the richest man in the world.' I've come a long way from there.
People have said things about me, and wrote and criticized me about things in the past, but it goes in one ear and out the other.
If you fight angry, you make a lot of mistakes, and when you fight a sharp, witty fighter like me, you can't make mistakes.
I'm a professional fighter and like most professional fighters I have had difficulties with my hands in the past.
I ain't never nervous. Never nervous.
I always put my boxing first.
I don't adjust my training for any of my opponents. I don't watch films on my opponents.
Nobody is faster than me.
You know, everybody has a slogan, and once you beat people over the head with it so much, then that's what you'll eventually be called once you retire from the sport or whatever.
Once I am in the square circle, I am in my home.
If I'm scared and I'm a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?
My skills are still my skills.
Self-preservation is an important thing to me.
Boxing is what pays my bills.
I haven't took no punishment. There's nothing cool about taking punishment.
The American fans would love to see me fight anybody.
Some people are just right for you.
You hear certain things, negative things, all the time that aren't true, but you never hear about the positive.
What's so crazy is when you give interviews to reporters that don't really care too much for you, basically what they're going to do is write what they want to write and discredit you. They're going to write and say what they want to say, no matter what you tell them.
You've got to have a villain and they'll always make me a villain. I'm used to it - it makes me work harder and it makes me fight harder.
My whole outlook on life is, never judge a book by its cover.
I like to play table tennis, spend time with my kids.
If anyone has followed my career, they know that there's been a lot of obstacles and a lot of ups and down through my career. But day in and day out, and in the square circle, I went out there and always did my best.
When I step in the ring, I bring everything I have.
I knew boxing before I knew anything else.
I think I already proved that I wasn't just fighting for the money, because I fought as an amateur. I fought 90 fights for free.
In the end, you have to protect yourself at all times.
A true champion can adapt to anything.
I'm not in this sport to take punishment.
I push myself to the limit.
There comes a time when money doesn't matter.
I like fighters who come to fight.
Floyd Mayweather is in the sport to give great performances.
You know, as a young child, I lay in my bedroom and I swore to myself then: 'I'm not going to smoke and I'm not going to drink.' And I said I'm not going to just say that when I'm a kid. I'm going to stick to that as an adult. I kept that in mind my whole life.
When they put me on ESPN and they talk about negative things, or when they put me on TMZ and they talk about negative things, I'm just glad that I'm relevant; to have lasted this long being relevant.
Most people should be talking about how Floyd Mayweather is a great undefeated future Hall of Famer that's his own promoter and that works extremely hard to get to where he's at. Instead, all you hear is hate and jealous remarks from critics who criticize me and, you know, most of the time, the people that criticize me can't do what I can do.
I've had boxing gloves on since before I could walk and been in gyms all of my life.
I love basketball.
You have good days, you have bad days. But the main thing is to grow mentally.
Well, you've got certain obstacles that get in your way throughout your career, but you have to be a strong individual.
I am the best. There is nobody better than me.
A lot of times, in the beginning of my career, I put pressure on myself just because I wanted to perform so well. I just wanted to be perfect.
I got a big mouth.
You have to protect yourself at all times. What goes around comes around.
