You have got to not get hit. You could be the best puncher in the world, but if you're going to keep constantly taking punches you're going to lose your heart. Once you learn how to miss the punches and then you start to punch them, you become an all-around fighter.
— Gerry Cooney
Anytime somebody climbs up those steps into the ring, they have a heart.
About 99 percent of fighters end up broke. F.I.S.T. helps them turn the page and find new goals.
You can have more than one career, but you only have one family.
I'm a happy guy. I just want to see people laugh and smile.
It's like I had two things pulling at me: you want to be a fighter, and you have problems. So I couldn't be a fighter, and I wasn't solving any problems.
Boxing gave me a voice to express the anger I felt for where I came from.
Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren't working out, you say, 'Let me step away for a while.' But the fire still burns.
I either had to concentrate on fighting, or I had to help my family. I chose my family. I love my mom; I love my family.
I think I make people laugh, and that's good in life.
Some have made boxing a terrible thing to be around.
You go through pain. You feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable until you change. I acquired a different outlook.
I'm one crazy, crazy guy.
Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.
My father never once told me he loved me. I told him I loved him only one time - that was when he was sick. It was hard, the way he showed his love. I didn't understand what he was trying to teach me. Now I know, but it came too late for him to see it. After he was gone, I realized he was trying to strengthen my mind to make me better.
I liked to watch the expression in the fighter's face change when you connected with him. You know when you connect in the right spot. It's like a tunnel vision.
Boxing was a way to express my anger. All of a sudden, I was expressing anger, and I was good at it. I was like a Jekyll and Hyde. Boxing helped me because I was fighting the anger out. I was knocking guys out.
I'm easygoing. There's a place and time for everything. When that bell rings, I'm not nice and easy. I'm not meek and passive.
When you bottom out, you have to stand up and get going again.
When I see a fighter gets into the ring, I not only see the fighter, but I see his wife and children. I care about what happens to them. I care about what happens to that fighter after he gets out of the ring.
My father would never have lost to Holmes.
I always had the hope that Holmes and I would fight again.
I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.
I have a Roman nose. It roams all over my face.
I don't care about the critics. I took a lot of nonsense. I got stuck with silly labels like 'White Hope.' What about other guys like Tex Cobb - they never had those labels?
I've just had some bad luck. I've had every injury known to man. I understand how people think, 'How can this be happening all the time to Gerry Cooney?' But it did.
I've had a long, long road with lots of ups and downs. But that's all behind me now.
I spent a lot of time dwelling on yesterday, and it did me no good.
I was embarrassing against Spinks.
When I hurt Norton, I got scared. I looked to the referee. But in the same sense, you're a fighter: you gotta have the killer instinct.
Maybe I'll go to acting school. Acting is like boxing, you know.
When I was 15, I decided to take up the sport seriously, so I went down to the Y.M.C.A. My first day there, this little Italian guy beat my brains out. I decided to quit. Then I realized I really wanted to be a fighter. I worked at it, went back, and that little Italian guy didn't beat me up no more.
I have this want-to-be-liked thing, but deep down, I had this rage. I was just - I was blinded. I wasn't healthy enough to be able to learn more. I had one mode - to fight.
It's great playing a sport where you don't get hit in the head.
I learned a lot from the Holmes fight. I learned about styles and the pressure. I'm more prepared now.
Most fighters, when they're finished, boxing turns its back on them.
I grew up in a household where I learned five things from my old man. You know what they were? You're no good. You're a failure. You're not going to amount to anything. Don't trust nobody, and don't tell nobody your business. When I lost to Larry Holmes in 1982, I felt all five of those things smacked me right across the face.
I never fought because of my father. I started to box before he pushed me. It had nothing to do with him.
It's tough waking up in the morning and reading derogatory stories about you.
I saw my brother have an altercation one time. He hit a guy with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. He not only knocked the guy out, but out of wind. That stuck with me. It scared me.
I know I can fight; that's the only thing that matters to me.
I've always wanted to fight. I love to fight.
Some of the things written about me hurt, but there is nothing I can do about it.
They said if I'd fight a ranked contender, I'd get a title shot. I did that, and the next day they changed the rules.
It took me to be 33 to start to know how to fight.
I don't want anybody guarding me. I want to be free; I want to be left alone... I would like to go out there and have no one know me, but at the same time, it would bother me, y'know.
Am I complicated? Nah, I'm interesting. I just like having a good time.
Fighting is not something you can just turn off.
I have a great life. I'm the happiest guy in the world.
If my son wants a boxing career, I won't stop him, but I definitely won't push him. It's bad for a kid to be pressured.
