Welcome to our compilation of inspiring and motivational boxing quotes! Boxing is not just a sport; it’s a symbol of resilience, determination, and the relentless pursuit of greatness. Throughout history, boxers have uttered words that resonate far beyond the ring, capturing the essence of the sport and offering invaluable insights into life’s challenges and triumphs.
From legendary champions to up-and-coming contenders, these quotes encapsulate the grit, discipline, and passion that define the world of boxing. Whether you’re a seasoned fighter, an aspiring athlete, or simply someone seeking motivation, these words will ignite your spirit and drive you towards your goals. So, without further ado, delve into the wisdom of boxing’s finest
Boxing is a sport. We allow each other to hit each other, but I’m not treating my opponent like my enemy. We’re doing a job to entertain people. Manny Pacquiao
Mexican boxing is very aggressive; you go forward with great heart. The American style is always that you run around, you try to be elusive. The Mexican style is much better. I never tried to be elusive. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.
Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost. Joyce Carol Oates
It’s less about the physical training, in the end, than it is about the mental preparation: boxing is a chess game. You have to be skilled enough and have trained hard enough to know how many different ways you can counterattack in any situation, at any moment. Jimmy Smits
At the end of the day, I am the cash cow in women’s boxing. Claressa Shields
Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it. George Foreman
Sometimes, there’s a fine line between bravery and utter stupidity. The day I decided to climb into a boxing ring for a professional fight was probably on the side of stupidity. Andrew Flintoff
As much as I love boxing, I hate it. And as much as I hate it, I love it. Budd Schulberg
Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world. You’ve got all the fans, lots of hangers-on jumping up and shouting different words. But when you actually go in the ring, it’s a very lonely and scary place. It’s just you and the other guy. Frank Bruno
I’ve seen George Foreman shadow boxing, and the shadow won. Muhammad Ali
I’ve always said boxing will not retire me, I will retire from boxing, and I stand by that statement. Tony Bellew
In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn’t have any fear. I thought, ‘This is easy. This is what I’ve been waiting for’. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost. George Foreman
There’s a lot of big guys who can play-make. We put labels like, ‘Oh, he’s a point guard, he’s a center.’ But sometimes your center can play-make for you and not just be the center, boxing out for rebounds and playing in the post. Giannis Antetokounmpo
When I was boxing I made five million and wound up broke, owing the government a million. Joe Louis
I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it – and I may come back. Muhammad Ali
People say it’s a movie about boxing, but… I don’t agree at all. I don’t think it’s a movie about boxing. Boxing is like a platform. It’s just a stage where this is played out. Morgan Freeman
In England I played everything – swimming, athletics, football, rugby, badminton, cricket – all of that stuff. I was in the first teams for all the sports at Brighton, played on the wing in rugby, and ran 100m, 200m, 400m, and did long jump and even the javelin at one point. In the States I did a bit of track, but mainly I was there for the boxing. Chris Eubank Jr.
I am a boxing fan. Stephen A. Smith
At its heart, ‘Fat City’ is not about boxing. It is a universal story of grim realities and toxic delusions. It is awash with awareness of chances blown, dreams stymied, precious time wasted, and all future prospects scorched to ashes by the process. Katherine Dunn
I do Thai boxing Mondays, jujitsu Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Wednesdays I do boxing with Mark – he was a world champion at one point. I absolutely love it. I actually have a punching bag outside in my garden. I’m obsessed with working out. I eat like a pig, so it kind of makes up for that. Millie Bobby Brown
Mental strength is really important because you either win or lose in your mind. And I’m not solely talking about sporting matches, boxing events – anything you do, you do it first with your mental strength. And you can actually train and develop it, and I am responsible for what I’m saying because I have experience with that. Wladimir Klitschko
I want to produce. I want to direct. I want to be my own camera man. I want my own boxing club. I have it all written down. I want to do everything. Barry Keoghan
Boxing is the most beautiful thing after women. Canelo Alvarez
I train in Muay Thai, kickboxing, traditional boxing, wrestling, jiujitsu, and a little bit of judo. Urijah Faber
Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker book. Joe Frazier
As everyone in boxing knows, styles makes fights. Miguel Cotto
Boxing is a dying sport, really. Years ago, the world heavyweight champion could be said to have reached the highest pinnacle of sport. Even in this country, boxers were heroes. Think of Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno. Tyson Fury
Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There’s nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring. Sugar Ray Leonard
And I love kick boxing. It’s a lot of fun. It gives you a lot of confidence when you can kick somebody in the head. Alicia Keys
In London the day after Christmas (Boxing Day), it began to snow: my first snow in England. For five years, I had been tactfully asking, ‘Do you ever have snow at all?’ as I steeled myself to the six months of wet, tepid gray that make up an English winter. ‘Ooo, I do remember snow,’ was the usual reply, ‘when I were a lad.’ Sylvia Plath
It’s not a game. You can’t play boxing. Gervonta Davis
My life is way bigger than boxing or acting or being rich or being famous or endorsements. Claressa Shields
For me, boxing was a way of me exercising my frustration, anger, sense of injustice, but also a way of owning my space and taking up space. Which I think as a woman in the art world is essential for surviving. You have to become comfortable going like, ‘OK, I’m going to take this wall, this wall is mine, I’m going to put my work on this wall.’ Zoe Buckman
Boxing is serious. It’s not a game. Just one punch – change life. Gennady Golovkin
Boxing is not about your feelings. It’s about performance. Manny Pacquiao
Fighting is dancing. Look at a great boxing match, and it’s a dancing. David Lyons
Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons. Muhammad Ali
If I could ban boxing, I probably would, but I’ll tell you in the same breath, I loved it growing up. Jonathan Banks
Boxing is real easy. Life is much harder. Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
In sport, you only see the fighter, but it’s teamwork. Without a good team, you will never be the best. In boxing, you have to work with the best coach, the best lawyer, the best manager, the best doctor. Exactly the same principle applies in politics. Vitali Klitschko
In boxing, they say it’s the punch you don’t see coming that knocks you out. In the wider world, the reality we ignore or deny is the one that weakens our most impassioned efforts toward improvement. Katherine Dunn
I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes – basketball, football – but I was kind of a momma’s boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural. Sugar Ray Leonard
Whatever I lack in size and strength and speed, I kind of make up for in being grittier. When it comes to something like basketball I’m definitely not the best guy on the court, but I love elbowing and pushing people out or boxing them out. Steven Yeun
Boxing is the sweet science. You hit and not get hit. There’s no reward for you to hit me more than I hit you other than on the scorecards. Bernard Hopkins
Boxing is limited fighting with a specific rule set. Fighting is true, where you can do anything. Conor McGregor
Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up. Muhammad Ali
I run, but boxing conditioning is different, so you have to get used to running in the ring. Boxing movements are very different. Swimming is one of the best because every single muscle is working. I swim a lot. I train very hard at things that mimic boxing. I have to do mostly sport-specific training, such as lots of sparring. Wladimir Klitschko
Boxing gave me self-confidence that I didn’t have growing up. When I was young, I was super quiet and I didn’t trust anybody. I didn’t like having friends. Claressa Shields
I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own. Muhammad Ali
With darts it’s just one against one, it’s blow for blow. The only thing I could compare it to is boxing. It’s dead exciting. You’re reacting to each other, the adrenaline’s pumping. You don’t feel calm at all. But it’s all about being able to win when you’re pumped up. People say you don’t play the player; I play the player every time. Phil Taylor
Boxing is a metaphor for hitting back and showing you can win in life. Takashi Miike
I beat Larry Holmes and George Foreman. I whupped Mike Tyson twice. I had my ear chewed off and spat on the ground in front of me. I’ve seen everything it is possible to see in boxing. I know this business better than anyone. So I live and die by my own decisions. Evander Holyfield
It’s really important to have role models, and a lot of the ancients always talked about this. Seneca talked about this, Aristotle talked about this, and in fact, this was my boxing coach’s philosophy in college, was that you have to have role models. Eric Greitens
My mother gave me boxing gloves; I wanted boxing gloves. I liked to box. So I still have them. They’re still in my bookcase, very old, tattered, and they were cherished. Pierce Brosnan
I watched Ali, studied Ali, and I studied Sugar Ray Robinson. I watched them display showmanship. I watched them use pizzazz, personality, and charisma. I took things from them and borrowed things from them because boxing is entertainment. Sugar Ray Leonard
People who like boxing like my style. Gennady Golovkin
It would be hard to throw a punch to someone who wasn’t a boxer, who wasn’t in the ring, and who didn’t have on a pair of boxing gloves and who hadn’t been training. George Foreman
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
No sport is more geared to the warrior’s code of honour, pride and respect. That’s why I love boxing. It’s mano a mano. One against one. It’s driven by fear and your need to conquer it. Carl Froch
I’m already the face of the UFC, plus the face of boxing, WWE, and Hollywood. Conor McGregor
Boxing and billiards, its all angles. Keith Thurman
I do a bit of boxing in the off-season to stay fit – it’s a different kind of fitness. Nikita Parris
Boxing saved my life. There were a lot of gangs and I was hanging around with the wrong people. Andy Ruiz Jr.
Forward, always moving forward, from the time I can remember – a kid. I was short, and the big guys would take advantage; I had to turn myself into a body puncher. By that time I was in reform school, they’d have a boxing match every week; they’d bring guys in from outside to fight me. Jake LaMotta
Boxing’s a poor man’s sport. We can’t afford to play golf or tennis. It is what it is. It’s kept so many kids off the street. It kept me off the street. Sugar Ray Leonard
I do boxing; I do a little jiu jitsu, which I am obsessed with. Irina Shayk
I worked in this club in Mansfield, Ohio, called the Ringside. The stage was just like a boxing ring with the four posts, the ropes and everything. Soupy Sales
Boxing is an imitation of life. You get knocked down and you get back up. You don’t quit no matter how dark it gets, or whatever adversity passes your way. You just got to keep biting down and fighting, coming up the other side and not quitting, no matter what. Caleb Plant
Mike Tyson was one of the fighters who motivated me. How? We both used to train at the Golden Gloves boxing gym. I used to see his Rolls-Royce, his diamond Rolex on, and I said, ‘You know what? Those are the things that I want.’ Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
I’m in the game of spinning plates. I’m spinning a boxing plate. I’m spinning a Tae Kwon Do plate. I’m spinning a Jujitsu plate. I’m spinning a freestyle wrestling plate. I’m spinning a karate plate. If I was to put all them down and have one boxing plate spinning, it would be like a load off my shoulders. Conor McGregor
Boxing is a dangerous, cruel sport. I love the sport, but I don’t want to see my kids in the ring, potentially being hurt, with me not being able to do nothing to help them. Terence Crawford
Auditioning is like boxing: It keeps me hungry and intense, whether I get the part or not. Mia Goth
If you want street fight, let’s go. If you want boxing, I show you. But people think I am, like, gangster. No. Ring is different world. Very dangerous. Gennady Golovkin
People don’t realize what they had till it’s gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing. Muhammad Ali
I’m not really a gambler, but I’ll bet on the Super Bowl or some boxing. Something I feel comfortable with. Birdman
That’s the biggest problem with boxing in the United States. They do not promote it like they used to, when it used to be Howard Cosell and they showed it on ‘Wide World of Sports.’ Everybody knew all the fighters. Everybody was looking forward to the year when the Olympics came on. Evander Holyfield
When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, ‘What can women do in boxing?’ I took it as a challenge. If men can do it, why can’t women? And I became a world champion before my marriage. Mary Kom
I took up boxing as a fitness thing. I got obsessed, and I would go every day when I wasn’t working. It’s just an insane sport when you get into it. Lena Headey
When I got cast in ‘Rocky IV,’ I had never seen a film camera before. And here I was in this boxing movie. Dolph Lundgren
I use the period between Christmas and New Year to potter about, think and completely change my mindset. In that easy no-man’s-land between Boxing Day and New Year, loins are girded and mettle readied. It is time, as we voyagers bid farewell to the old year, to fare forward. Monty Don
I started a youth center in Houston. The kids would come in and want to learn to box; they wanted to tear up the world, beat up the world. And I’d try to show them they didn’t need anger. They didn’t need all that killing instinct they’d read about. You can be a human being and pursue boxing as a sport. George Foreman
Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali. You get these rivalries in boxing – not that often, so when you do get them, why do you want to sanitise it? David Haye
Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh. Gerry Cooney
In golf, you keep trying to score well when you’re ahead. In basketball, they don’t quit shooting when they’re ahead. In hockey, they don’t quit shooting the puck when they’re ahead. And in boxing, you don’t quit punching when you’re ahead. But in football, somehow magically, you’re supposed to quit playing when you’re ahead. Mike Leach
In those days, boxing was very glamorous and romantic. You listened to fights on the radio, and a good announcer made it seem like a contest between gladiators. Joseph Barbera
Boxing has lost its glamour and excitement. I’m going to bring it back. Naseem Hamed
Politics is a dirty game. We have our rules in boxing. In politics, no rules. Especially a young democracy like Ukraine. It’s more like MMA. Vitali Klitschko
I’m honored and blessed by God to be in the sport I love, and I want to accomplish all the goals I set in the sport of boxing – to be successful and make history. Canelo Alvarez
I’m a satirist, so I’ve got boxing gloves on if the person is worthy of satire. But I’m not an assassin. If that ever happens, it’s only because something happened during the interview that got me going, and then I had to translate my feelings to the mouth of the character. Stephen Colbert
My team members are Hector Soto, who is a boxing promoter and Vice-president of Miguel Cotto Promotions. He runs all my business. He was the person that my father left in charge of it all. Bryan Perez is my right-hand man. Miguel Cotto
For an hour every day, I did something. I was on the elliptical or the treadmill, and if someone asked me to go to a class – whether it was spinning, boxing, yoga, you name it – I went. By the end of the month, I felt so good, I just kept going. I didn’t want to lose my momentum. Molly Sims
Boxing is dangerous. Anything can happen, so you need supreme confidence. That’s why I represent myself like nobody can beat me, because I need to truly believe it. Ryan Garcia
The ‘Tough Man’ contests were for 21-year-olds, but I weighed 150 pounds at 13, so I got a fake ID card and entered. My dad and uncles had given me an edge, so having a boxing background made it easier because a lot of the older guys didn’t know how to fight. Tommy Morrison
The boys, they are laughing: ‘Oh, you are boxing. Very funny.’ But I always challenge when people are laughing – ‘I’ll show you one day.’ After getting five times world champion, they are all quiet. And they respect me. Mary Kom
Boxing is like chess. You encourage your opponent to make mistakes so you can capitalise on it. People think you get in the ring and see the red mist, but it’s not about aggression. Avoiding getting knocked out is tactical. Nicola Adams
People say that I’m a boxer. I actually started with kick boxing, and then I moved onto boxing, and then I moved onto grappling. Conor McGregor
That was my biggest dream, to one day become champion in MMA and boxing. That is my biggest dream. Jose Aldo
I used to drink. I didn’t like reading, but I discovered the benefits of it. I read that Floyd Mayweather never drinks – and he is the blueprint for boxing. Anthony Joshua
To my surprise, I discovered that I could act, and I liked it even better than boxing. John Garfield
For the most part, I think video games do a good job of capturing the essence of boxing. However, I’d like to continue to see them push the realism, emphasizing the skill involved. Sugar Ray Leonard
