Top 77 Gerry Cooney Quotes

Winning the Gloves made me believe I was somebody.

What hurt most were the people who came up to me and said they lost $1,000 on me. It just makes you mad.

I had two managers who couldn’t stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn’t get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn’t fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.

Some of the things written about me hurt, but there is nothing I can do about it.

By the time you’re 30 years old, you can be on a nowhere street, if you’re not careful.

I’ve just had some bad luck. I’ve had every injury known to man. I understand how people think, ‘How can this be happening all the time to Gerry Cooney?’ But it did.

It’s great playing a sport where you don’t get hit in the head.

I really don’t care who I fight.

The fight with Holmes was a plus. I gained so much experience.

I see Mike Tyson as too strong for Spinks.

Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.

Am I complicated? Nah, I’m interesting. I just like having a good time.

When I was 15, I decided to take up the sport seriously, so I went down to the Y.M.C.A. My first day there, this little Italian guy beat my brains out. I decided to quit. Then I realized I really wanted to be a fighter. I worked at it, went back, and that little Italian guy didn’t beat me up no more.

I’m easygoing. There’s a place and time for everything. When that bell rings, I’m not nice and easy. I’m not meek and passive.

I have a Roman nose. It roams all over my face.

I have a great life. I’m the happiest guy in the world.

After every fight, I knock myself down. I start from scratch again. I say, ‘I’m not as good as I thought.’ It makes you work harder. It makes you push harder. It’s more than money. It’s more than the title. It’s my pride, and it can be scary thinking about it. I could lose. It’s scary.

If my son wants a boxing career, I won‘t stop him, but I definitely won’t push him. It’s bad for a kid to be pressured.

The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn’t get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King’s guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.

Boxing gave me a voice to express the anger I felt for where I came from.

I either had to concentrate on fighting, or I had to help my family. I chose my family. I love my mom; I love my family.

You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing.

I think I make people laugh, and that’s good in life.

I’m a happy guy. I just want to see people laugh and smile.

Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren’t working out, you say, ‘Let me step away for a while.’ But the fire still burns.

Looking back, I couldn’t get enough fights because Don King owned most of the top 10 fighters, and he never gave me a fight.

For every athlete, the roar of the crowd goes away, and we have to learn how to turn the page.

The past is yesterday. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

It’s like you always think that when you get to a goal, you’ll be happy. But then there is always something else that interests you.

If you look at my career, towards the end you will see I was fighting like once a year. I was not part of the Don King top heavyweights, so I was kind of kept out. His guys were getting three to four fights a year and I could only get one.

I feel very blessed.

I have this want-to-be-liked thing, but deep down, I had this rage. I was just – I was blinded. I wasn’t healthy enough to be able to learn more. I had one mode – to fight.

I retired when I was 30, with all my marbles and a few bucks. But a lot of guys leave boxing penniless with no skills. Men in their 30s and early 40s, old for boxing, young in life, but also old in the job market if you’re just getting started with no education. These guys need someone in their corner.

The road hasn’t always been paved for me. People identify with that. Everybody passes through hard times, and I think that’s part of my appeal – that I have, too.

I was a left hooker, and I loved hooking. I also really liked to jab and mix it up right away.

I liked to watch the expression in the fighter’s face change when you connected with him. You know when you connect in the right spot. It’s like a tunnel vision.

I believe in my abilities as a fighter.

Most fighters, when they’re finished, boxing turns its back on them.

Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.

I don’t want anybody guarding me. I want to be free; I want to be left alone… I would like to go out there and have no one know me, but at the same time, it would bother me, y’know.

When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn’t even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym – no ring, just on the gym floor.

Fighting is not something you can just turn off.

I don’t care about the critics. I took a lot of nonsense. I got stuck with silly labels like ‘White Hope.’ What about other guys like Tex Cobb – they never had those labels?

When I fought Holmes, I feel I was a better fighter than he was. I was just so caught up in what was written about the fight – I got caught up in that whole thing.

I’m one crazy, crazy guy.

They said if I’d fight a ranked contender, I’d get a title shot. I did that, and the next day they changed the rules.

I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time.

I always felt I was wounded. That I was no good, a piece of crap, and that I wouldn’t amount to anything, because that’s what my father always told me. I just felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.

I saw my brother have an altercation one time. He hit a guy with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. He not only knocked the guy out, but out of wind. That stuck with me. It scared me.

I’ve always wanted to fight. I love to fight.

When you bottom out, you have to stand up and get going again.

I don’t fear Holmes, but I think he’s a good fighter. He has a lot of pride. But I wouldn’t be fighting him if I feared him. It’s going to be a tough fight. People say with all the hoopla out there, I won’t be able to handle it. I believe the pressure’s on him. I’m just going to do my thing.

Too many guys don’t know what to do with their lives after boxing. I was lucky because I had two managers who didn’t trust each other, and so they were always making sure where all the money was, and because of that, so did I.

I know I can fight; that’s the only thing that matters to me.

I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me.

Joe DeGuardia, I love that guy. He’s not a superstar promoter yet, but he will be. He was a fighter himself; he’s staying the course with these guys. He’s developing some good fighters out there. I really applaud him whenever I get a chance to.

About 99 percent of fighters end up broke. F.I.S.T. helps them turn the page and find new goals.

When I see a fighter gets into the ring, I not only see the fighter, but I see his wife and children. I care about what happens to them. I care about what happens to that fighter after he gets out of the ring.

I spent a lot of time dwelling on yesterday, and it did me no good.

Everybody handles pressure differently.

I’ve spent most of my life in prison. I was a prisoner of my fear and my low self-esteem.

I never fought because of my father. I started to box before he pushed me. It had nothing to do with him.

I was embarrassing against Spinks.

When that bell rang, I wanted to go out there and do my thing.

Boxing was a way to express my anger. All of a sudden, I was expressing anger, and I was good at it. I was like a Jekyll and Hyde. Boxing helped me because I was fighting the anger out. I was knocking guys out.

I don’t care what you say about me anymore! I don’t care what you write about me anymore. I don’t care! This is my life. I can’t have anybody messing with my life. I just want to be Gerry Cooney, doing what I want to do. I want to be what I am. A fighter.

I just like people. We have a good time together.

Roberto Duran was the kind of guy who was a true fighter and you hardly see guys like that anymore.

I had personal problems. I was spending 50% of my life on my family, 50% on boxing. Neither was getting anywhere. It was killing me. So I had to break away from fighting.

Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.

You take that walk from the dressing room to the ring and that’s when the real man comes out. Then you climb up those four stairs and into the ring. Then finally, you can’t wait for the bell to ring.

I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they’ll need to really pay attention to it.

I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.

Long Island has a great boxing tradition.

I believe in myself. I want to be a fighter. I want to be heavyweight champion of the world.

I feel like a pro now. Before I fought Holmes, I felt like a rookie.

My career got sidetracked after fighting Holmes.