Perfection, in anything, is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection.
Sure the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.
In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didnt have any fear. I thought, This is easy. This is what Ive been waiting for. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost.
Its very important that people know that I really enjoy everything that has happened to me. And I tell my kids. . . youre not going to be the tallest, fastest, prettiest, the best track runner, but you can be the nicest human being that someone has ever met in their life. And I just want to leave that legacy that being nice is a true treasure.
I hope to have one more boxing match at the age of 55. Given that demographic at the age of 55 to 65, you've got to make a statement with your life. Otherwise, you are just existing.
The boxing promotion part is really interesting, because I got the chance to do something with my sons. They carry their own weight, and I get a chance to listen to them and see what they have on their minds. I don't have to hand out things to do, and now they have things for me to do. It's an amazing privilege to get the opportunity to work with your children.
If I could take a punch like that, I might have been able to think up a name besides George for all my sons.
Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
I was also fortunate that I was raised in a part of the world, West Texas, where individualism is strong.
The 1992 crisis proved that the existing system was unstable. Not moving forward to the euro would have set up Europe for even more disruptive crises.
If you just try to make rational arguments about why people should care about Congo and how 5 million people have died, then people tend not to be receptive. But once you've created a connection of empathy, rational arguments can play a supportive role.