Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Quotes
Boxer
You have to protect yourself at all times. What goes around comes around.
When you're the best, you only want to surround yourself with the best.
I'm a man of my word.
A true champion will fight through anything.
God only made one thing in this world that's perfect - and that's my boxing record.
I'm a boxer who believes that the object of the sport is to hit and not get hit.
A true champion can adapt to anything.
I'm just an American dream.
You have good days, you have bad days. But the main thing is to grow mentally.
I'm always going to love my father.
I like to control my own personal life.
A lot of times, we get stuck, and we are followers. When you hear one person say, 'black lives matter,' or 'blue lives matter,' all lives matter. It's not right what is going on in this world on both sides.
I think my grandmother saw my potential first. When I was young, I told her, 'I think I should get a job.' She said, 'No, just keep boxing.'
There's ups and downs with boxing, layoffs are part of the sport and they can either help or hurt a guy.
You hear certain things, negative things, all the time that aren't true, but you never hear about the positive.
You could take me anywhere. You could take me to the moon, and believe me, everybody's going to try to take a trip to the moon to watch me fight.
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.
Every home that I have is paid for, every car that I have is paid for, and I am a hundred-million-dollar man. I mean, this is the truth; it's not a lie.
When you talking boxing, you talking me.
I'm looking to expand my portfolio while I'm on top and while I'm young.
Things happen for a reason, and the only thing you can do is at night time get on your knees and ask God for forgiveness for anything that you did that you didn't feel was right.
I'm not in this sport to say a guy can beat me.
I've set the model of showing fighters how they should conduct their business.
I don't adjust my training for any of my opponents. I don't watch films on my opponents.
Worry about going out there and making your own legacy.
What I learned from boxing and what everyone can take in real life is to follow directions, follow order. Don't give nobody a hard time.
We talk about these legendary fighters, talk about how they had hundred-something fights, hundred-something victories... but when you look at the history books, I still beat more world champions than any fighter in history.
I'll back up anything my dad says.
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.'
I am the best. There is nobody better than me.
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 knew Dana White as a good guy, a good square guy.
Boxing's in my genes. I come from a fighting background. My dad and both my uncles were good boxers. I'm blessed with the art of war.
I got a granite chin.
I haven't took no punishment. There's nothing cool about taking punishment.
I know that there's a god because I was able to survive everything that I've been through - all of the tough times - and I'm still at the top of my game.
If I'm scared and I'm a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?
Boxing is real easy. Life is much harder.
If you were my friend, I love you unconditionally. I like you the same way I like everyone else that's around me.
Self-preservation is an important thing to me.
In the end, you have to protect yourself at all times.
Even though I made $800 million, I am still grounded.
I come from a very rough background, and I'm saying that if you work hard and dedicate yourself that you can make it, too.
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.
When they said, 'Why is Floyd Mayweather not fighting Manny Pacquiao?' it was because Manny Pacquiao had a boss. I don't have a boss.
Everything people say I couldn't do I've done.
God has blessed me with an unbelievable talent, with fast feet, fast hands, unbelievable defense and a very, very sharp mind. So I'm thankful for that.
All the money I have, I got it legally.
Don't ever know who you may meet, or just because a person may not be dressed up all fancy, don't mean they're not an important person. You just don't ever know who you're gonna meet in life. So that's why I look at everybody as equal. Can't just judge. I treat everybody with respect. Every man.
I'm not here to judge Mike Tyson. I'm not here to judge nobody. I'm not here to monitor no other fighters. I respect him for what he did in the sport of boxing. He was an entertainer.
I land a higher percentage of punches than any boxer in boxing.
No one thought the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would happen, but I had patience.
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.
Conor McGregor is a tough competitor. He proved throughout the years in the UFC that he can fight standing up.
I can remember 1987 when I had my first amateur fight in Michigan, weighing 64lb. I was 10 years old. I was the youngest and smallest guy on my team. I can remember what I ate. There was this restaurant called Ponderosa, and my dad made me eat a steak. I was happy. It was a first round knockout. I slept with my trophy for two weeks.
When no one knew who Dana White was... Dana White used to run around with me, hang out with me, and I treated him just like anyone else in my camp.
When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up.
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.
Mayweather Promotions - we are the past, the present, and the future of sports and entertainment, and everybody knows Mayweather's pay is better.
I turned pro as a 20-year-old, won a world title a year later, and remained a world champion ever since.
I've had boxing gloves on since before I could walk and been in gyms all of my life.
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 I was about 8 or 9, I lived in New Jersey with my mother and we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn't have electricity.
My dad was in a hospital for months. The doctors told my dad he would never be able to walk again. My dad beat all the odds. He came back and was able to walk and start boxing again. He went to No. 1 in the world at welterweight to fight for the world title. But he never had his chance to fight for a world title.
I'm here to say all lives matter.
Larry Merchant's just a commentator. He don't know nothing about boxing.
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.
I'm always focused.
My whole outlook on life is, never judge a book by its cover.
Nobody is faster than me.
Once I am in the square circle, I am in my home.
I feel like everybody is against Floyd Mayweather. I don't get any respect.
I got a big mouth.
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.
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.
I want to be promoted in the urban areas. A lot of African-American people should know more about me.
I knew boxing before I knew anything else.
You can never overlook a guy.
When I was in the ring at the Olympics, it was my father's words that I was hearing, not the coaches'. 'I never listened to what the coaches said. I would call my father and he would give me advice from prison.
I basically raised myself.
I always put my boxing first.
I ain't never nervous. Never nervous.
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.
I love basketball.
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.
I'm a professional fighter and like most professional fighters I have had difficulties with my hands in the past.
When I step in the ring, I bring everything I have.
Well, you've got certain obstacles that get in your way throughout your career, but you have to be a strong individual.
I like to play table tennis, spend time with my kids.
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.
There comes a time when money doesn't matter.
I like fighters who come to fight.
Some people are just right for you.
I'm not in this sport to take punishment.
The American fans would love to see me fight anybody.
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 what pays my bills.
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.
Floyd Mayweather is in the sport to give great performances.
I push myself to the limit.