STILL HUNGRY
Miguel Cotto (UD 12) November 21, 2015, for Ring middleweight championship and vacant WBC title “He thought I was the bigger fighter, so that’s why he boxed. He did a good job, but I knew I was going to win that fight no matter what, no matter how. To beat one of the legends like Miguel Cotto, for me, was huge. After that, I told myself, ‘I’m a different fighter,’ because I got confidence. I got experience. I made myself a different fighter after Miguel Angel Cotto, and I respect him for everything he accomplished.” GennadIy Golovkin II (MD 12) September 15, 2018, for vacant Ring middleweight championship and WBA/WBC titles “The second fight, Eddy (Reynoso, Canelo’s trainer) told me ‘You need to throw 100 punches more than the first one.’ And I told him, ‘Look, I don’t want to box him,’ because I noticed in the first fight if you back him up, he doesn’t know what to do. He’s different [when you refuse to back up]. Obviously he’s a good fighter and everything, but he’s not the same Golovkin when he’s not chasing you. “So I said, ‘I’m not going to take one step back from him. [I’m going to] just stay there and fight him – and then the 100 more punches you want.’ So that was the strategy for that fight.”
Daniel Jacobs (UD 12) May 4, 2019, for Ring middleweight championship and IBF/WBA/WBC titles “I can do anything in the ring. I know everything. And for that fight, I needed to, and I’ll tell you why: because my knee was hurting me a lot in training camp. So I cannot run, I cannot do a lot of cardio. So I worked from here (pointing at his hip). [It was] all the upper body [movement]. So, in the fight, I was so tired because my arms were so tired. “That’s why I moved my upper body a lot. I said, ‘I need to do this to win the fight.’” Sergey Kovalev (KO 11) November 2, 2019, for WBO light heavyweight title “Oh, the punches [in my first light heavyweight fight] felt like a rock. In the front of my head (pointing to his forehead), I felt it right here. If you see after the fight, I was all red, because I felt the power of Kovalev. He’s strong. He’s a very good fighter. He was one of the pound-for-pound [rated] fighters at one point. But I believed in my skills. I believed in how strong I am. “I said, ‘Let’s go for that belt. Whatever you want, I’m ready.’” Callum Smith (UD 12) December 19, 2020, for Ring super middleweight championship and WBA/WBC titles
“It didn’t surprise me that [he laid on the ropes], because I knew my skills and what I can do. Eddy didn’t want that fight. He said, ‘No, no, no, he’s very strong. He’s tall.’ He didn’t want the fight. I said, ‘Just put me in that fight. I want to fight him.’ And the rest is history. I knew everything that was going to happen.” Billy Joe Saunders (TKO 8) May 8, 2021, for Ring super middleweight championship and WBA/WBC/WBO titles “I enjoyed that one, because he really is a bad person, believe me. Because he offended a lot of the Mexicans, a lot of the Mexican reporters. He really offended my team and everything. I got so angry, and I enjoyed beating his ass a lot. I told him what I’m going to do. I said, ‘In eight rounds, I’m going to beat you.’ So it was so satisfying for me.” Caleb Plant (TKO 11) November 6, 2021, for undisputed super middleweight championship “We said a lot of things [in the buildup]. At that moment, my English wasn’t very good. He said, ‘motherfucker,’ but I thought
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