Mike Tyson Quotes

“I can talk about humility, but I'm not humble. I mean, if you say, I'm humble, you've just contradicted yourself. But I'm trying to be, man, I'm trying so hard.”

“I had to persevere because this was my life. This championship, this was the stuff I dreamt of all my life, and I wasn't gonna be denied.”

“It's nothing personal, but I'm going to kill this guy”

“Boxing is an ego-driven sport. The idea is to not get too personal or emotional with it. You just know when it's over, it's over, and that's it.”

“How dare these boxers challenge me with their primitive skills? It makes me angry.”

“I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something: She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally.”

“Our money is bait money, and bait money is not to be used.”

“Becoming a vegan gave me another opportunity to live a healthy life. I was so congested from all the drugs and bad cocaine, I could hardly breathe, [I had] high blood pressure, [was] almost dying [and had] arthritis. And once I became a vegan all that stuff diminished.”

“It's good to be successful and have financial status but if you're only gonna live for the money, you're only gonna reach a certain status and I'm in there for greatness and peace of mind.”

“One day some guy is going to get a billion-dollar fight.”

“Anyone with a grain of sense would know that if I punched my wife I would rip her head off. It's all lies. I have never laid a finger on her.”

“I like entertaining people. I like being on stage. I like being in the life. This is what I do. This is the only thing I know how to do besides rob people and fight. Even when I was robbing people, I was entertaining them. But that's just what I love doing.”

“King has big offices, houses, and he pays his fighters a lot of money. An, because he's black, the FBI figures he must be doing something crooked.”

“In order for me to achieve... I had to regard myself greater than what I was. In other words I had to fake it until I make it.”

“Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport.”

“I know how hard it is to be a woman, especially a black woman.”

“He was screaming like my wife.”

“Everybody wants to be somebody. Everybody wants to be noticed. Everybody wants to be somebody important. Importance is just treating people good. That's important.”

“I fight for perfection”

“For what I get paid to get into the ring, I owe it to my fans to uphold the institution of sportsmanship.”

“The mind is a real dangerous neighborhood to travel by ourselves.”

“It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading.”

“That's all they said was wrong with me?”

“Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent.”

“Fighting is a sport; if you're not humble it's going to bring humbleness to you.”