Every fighter has a story that could break your heart. We lose, we get hurt and everything comes apart. That's when it's so difficult to stay on the straight and narrow.
I don't want to sound obnoxious, but I like to think I brought it another step. I was able to bring people who were casually interested in boxing together.
We managed to get underway, and I don't know to this day why we didn't get struck or take a torpedo, but we didn't. We got outside of the exit of the harbor and we started dropping depth charges.
We got orders to strike the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. We had a task force with the Enterprise. We had two or three cruisers and probably eight or 10 destroyers.
They got word that the Japanese planes were coming back, so we sunk her ourselves so the Japanese wouldn't get it. We didn't want the Japanese to get it intact.
I learned to play piano in a rock n' roll context or band context from country records - you know, Floyd Cramer - and from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Stax. And none of those are keyboard records.
But boxing was my profession. I had to go back the second time because I was broke and I couldn't just go and get a college degree and earn it. I had too many bills, too many families.
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. On the downside, you meet a lot of really bad people in boxing, at all stages of your career.
When money comes into play then that's all it's about wanting money, who's making the most who can get the most, me, me me... and in the end it screws up the person and the sport.
I started rooting - you know, sticking up joints - with some older guys. By now I had gotten a taste of what the racket world really was - the glamour, the way they dressed, the way they always had a pocketful of money.
I respect the IBF obligation to fight Povetkin, but I would like the exception to fight David Haye. That is the only title the Klitschkos don't have. We have them all except the WBA, which is why Haye is such an interesting cookie for me to eat.
Jagdish Singh was my basic coach, and he trained me from my very early days in boxing, teaching me the fundamentals of the sport. He was the one who shaped me into a boxer, disciplined me when I required disciplining.
I've fought everybody without ducking anyone. I have beaten 10 undefeated guys, and I never was comparing myself to the greatest in the sport. I was not thinking of breaking any records. I'm just enjoying my time in boxing.
I love music, and can dance on the desi beats. Punjabi music is my favourite. I listen to artists like Honey Singh. I love his music. I also love watching Bollywood films.
I don't listen to a lot of new stuff. I just like the old stuff. It's all quite dramatic and atmospheric. You'd have an entire story in song. I never listen to, like, white music - I couldn't sing you a Zeppelin or Floyd song.
Dr Floyd: Don't suppose you have any idea what the damn thing is, huh? Dr. Rolf Halvorsen: Wish to hell we did.
Floyd Gondolli: I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass, lollipops in my mouth. That's just me. That's just something that I enjoy.
It was a natural process, because when we go to the ring we are human beings, but once you feel the punches and the competition that's when the beast comes out and takes hold of us.
In the old days, when Muhammad Ali was fighting Ken Norton, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, there was a lot of excitement in the heavyweight division, I have to admit it.
After you work out, you have your dog with you. There's no better companion. You've got to have a friend. I didn't like opponents who had dogs with them. Because you know they had a little edge. They have a friend.
I heard a rapid alternation of notes, a vibrating staccato of an ancient instrument, nearly as old as nature herself, a cricket singing in my garden last night, the first time this year. When turning my garden's soil, I often uncover crickets, curmud...
