Naseem Hamed Quotes

"The core of my life is Islam, my religion. Without that, I have no strength, no belief in God or in myself."

"The fact is I have lost a fight, and I accept the loss from Allah. That's the way a real fighter and a real man goes out."

"I thought after that fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, if this was supposed to be fight of the decade, then people must be missing me a lot more."

"My mother asks me what round I'd like to win in, and she prays for that."

"I'm going to smash Wayne McCullough to bits. And when you see him smashed to bits, you're going to see the same thing I'd have done to Barry McGuigan, his friend and idol."

"My heart was bursting with pride the night I fought Steve Robinson in Wales, and I made the champion look like the challenger."

"You can't duplicate me. A lot of fighters come out with a certain amount of style, and I like to see that, but they get smashed up a little bit."

"There's no bigger fight on the planet than Prince Naseem and Marco Antonio Barrera. What's bigger than that? This will be the greatest fight in the history of the featherweight division."

"When you are challenging for the world title, you've got to go into the lion's den to try and rip that belt away from the champion."

"The Kelley fight meant that much because it's always when a fighter from this country goes over to America and proves himself, it's always make or break in a British fighter's career."

"Boxing has lost its glamour and excitement. I'm going to bring it back."

"I carried the WBO belt for five years and defended it 15 times against 10 world champions."

"My idol, Muhammad Ali, got beat when nobody thought he would, and he came back and back to beat Joe Frazier."

"I'm Yemeni, proud to be Yemeni. I'm public Yemeni number one!"

"I do think I retired too soon. I just felt at that particular time in 2002, after winning a fifth world title belt, why not be one of the smart ones in boxing and get out."

"I'm not saying I'm Mr Goody Two Shoes. I'm not. But if you try to rough me up, I'm going to body-slam you. I'm going to do everything I have to do psychologically to tell you that you are not stronger than me."

"At 19, I was European champion, and at 21, I was world champion. Let's just hope Amir Khan can follow in the same footsteps. I believe he can do it 100%; he's a fantastic talent."

"I've put myself on this pedestal from the start."

"No, I've never been frightened before a fight."

"That's what a true professional is - a true world champion, so to everybody out there listening, especially the fighters that want to fight me... they'll get knocked out, sparko."

"I love it when fighters are textbook."

"As a father, you become more responsible."

"I've got music in my head when I fight. I've got a certain rhythm, a certain way of fighting, a certain relaxation where I can let myself go."

"I'm blessed with a gift from God. When you're blessed, you have an advantage. You know you're not going to get beat when you're fighting with a gift. You're fighting with something that God has given you."

"My parents brought me up to speak the way I speak, to hold my head up high, to know wrong from right and to have manners."

"Ali could only fight a couple of ways. I can fight five or six different ways."

"I'm taught to adapt and exploit every situation in the ring."

"I could have brought Kevin Kelley to my own backyard and beat him up there. But I didn't want to do that. I wanted to come to his own backyard and bring him down in front of his own crowd, a place he loves."

"I don't know what other fighters do, but when I get hit and go down, I smile and I say, 'I'm going to hit you harder than you hit me, and I'm going to knock you out.' The times I go down and get back up - that's when I'm the most dangerous."

"I agree that some of my performances in America, apart from having drama and excitement, have been a little under my estimation for performance."