Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Anthony Yarde

I was offered the Kovalev fight in 2018 but my manager and promoter agreed it wasn't the right time for me to be challenging for a world title then. I needed a few more tuneup fights, learning fights, and I'm fine with that.

I know there's a lot of opinions about Covid-19 and I have mine but I just know opinions ain't worth risking your life and others. Just stay home.

Sometimes if you spend your time focusing on other people, you give them energy over you; you give them power.

I sometimes look on YouTube and see people label videos 'Anthony Yarde sparring his trainer Ade' but that is not sparring, that's just practice. We practice getting attacked, countering and attacking your opponent back, in intelligent ways.

With my dad it was a short time between him getting ill and passing. He got ill first and he took a turn for the worse very quickly, within days.

I just say to myself I'm going to be a better fighter day to day. That's my thing.

Some people are natural-born punchers and I think I've always had it.

I don't need to worry about what other people are talking about me. Instead, I focus on the people talking positive and all the positive things that I know I am doing.

I have been very busy having so many fights since I turned pro. To have 13 in little more than two years is a lot by modern standards.

I didn't start boxing until I was 18 but I believe that is a big advantage now. If you start too young, it's easy to become distracted.

It's about getting in there and being ready, getting the fight on your terms, taking the least amount of punishment possible.

I've been listening 50 cent's audiobook, 'The Hustler.'

Nobody has really gone out to Russia to fight somebody like Kovalev. A lot of people are paying attention to it and can't believe what I'm doing. Some people think I'm going to pull out. I've seen comments saying 'Oh this is a good publicity stunt' and I was just laughing. They don't understand.

A lot of people don't start something because of fear because they're scared of a negative outcome. Whereas I believe if you focus on negativity, you'll make nothing of your life.

I train hard, but having a fight on the cards so often gives me targets and focus.

Stop being childish. Use your time better - better yourself. Read a book, or do a workout exercise on YouTube.

In a way, and I don't like to use this word, but delusion can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing, but when you genuinely believe in something, if you're putting in the effort to progress, you're going to progress more than someone who doesn't think they can do it.

100 percent, I'm a natural athlete. From when I was younger, I played so many different sports and I've got a competitive mindset.

Sometimes you found yourself in conflict or within an area where there's conflict. Some days you just find yourself in danger. Sometimes these things mould you and that's what I mean about hostile environments.

I don't want to blow my own trumpet but the aim of the game is to hit and not get hit and that is what I am doing.

My dreams are to unify the world light-heavyweight titles like Roy Jones did and then at cruiserweight before then possibly the heavyweight division.

I used to have a short temper. I still have one and when I lose it, it's bad. I think it comes from what you see when you're young. Sometimes it builds from being scared as well. Once you lose it once, you find comfort in losing your temper. It becomes embedded in you.

I've got a lot of criticism for not taking domestic fights but I've got my own strategy.

I love my chocolate, I love my dessert, I love my cookie dough.

I thought the Mike Tyson story was beautiful and it drew me in. He was bullied, a small kid who started knocking out giants.

I remember being in fights and being tremendously outnumbered and it escalating into something much worse. That's why I laughed when people asked if I was scared of going to Russia. If only they knew about some of the things I've seen.

When I was growing up Harlequins were interested in signing me because I was very fast and strong at an early age, but I wasn't interested in rugby at the time.

I love my slow jams.

I wanted to look like Mike Tyson. But then I started to realize, in a twelve round fight, you must be patient.

I saw a lot of bad things happen by people I know and to people I know. There were a lot of different gangs around and sometimes you found yourself in conflict. I found myself attracting negative things because I was in a negative environment, I was pre-determining this stuff before it happened.

My contact with my dad's side of my family got less after we stopped living together, but they were in my life.

When I told people my plan was to knock everyone out in the amateurs and become world champion as quickly as I could as a professional, a lot of people said it was impossible.

I wasn't good at football when I was young but I made myself get good at football because of my mentality.

Everyone has their own methods, when Muhammad Ali was coming through I am sure people said he leaned back too far, had his chin too high and dropped his hands too low. I am not comparing myself Ali, just showing that people have different methods that work for them.

I've had 12 amateur fights, 18 professional fights and I've come to Russia, not just to Russia but to Chelyabinsk, home of Sergey Kovalev who has an impressive resume. The fact I've come to his backyard means I feel it will go down as one of the best results ever.

Boxing gives you discipline, it helps you physically and mentally.

I'm looking to fight for a world title by the end of 2019.

I have learned in boxing to separate emotion from your job and the time in the ring. When it comes to anything that causes an emotional trigger I try to clear my head.

So I was in football, athletics doing shot put and sprinting, and rugby all at the same time. Ultimately, I didn't know how serious you had to take one of them and I was just a kid wanting to do everything at once.

Nine times out of 10 the smarter or mentally focused fighter comes out on top.

Yes, my mum had a huge influence on my life and the love she had for me, the love we had between each other, did sway me to not do bad things. Sometimes they say the street raised you, but my mum did the raising.

One day guns were pulled on us by older guys. My friend had gone to sell his moped and they took the moped, my friend's phone and some money. But all he got from my pocket was a tub of Vaseline. I remember him saying, 'Oh, he's a sweet boy' and throwing my Vaseline on the floor.

I told my boss, 'Thank you - but I'm not going to be here tomorrow. I'm going to pursue my career as a boxer.' I remember the woman actually laughed at me. She giggled and said, 'Boxing? Well, good luck.'

Floyd Mayweather said it, perfect boxing career, undefeated, but he says that in life there's balance. He might have the perfect boxing career, but elsewhere there's loss.

I love pizza, I love Chinese food, Caribbean food, I love Italian.

I believe when you have your hands on four or five pots at once, you can never have a firm grip on one pot. My one pot is being a boxer.

I study Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr and Sugar Ray Leonard.

I'm an example of someone that's got a big physique but doesn't touch any weights. I used to, but I realized when I used to touch weights I'd get a lot of soreness and mobility issues, so I'd get up and my shoulder would be hurting, not only the muscle but around the joint.

When you get a bit older, life can start kicking and it was mainly the area I grew up in that began to lead me astray. I went down the wrong paths to some degree.

I believe when you rush your work, you're not thinking about what you're doing. That's when you make mistakes.

My first boxing experience came at around 14. There was always confrontation in the area I grew up in. My mentality, I'll be honest, was if someone tries it with me, I want to be able to knock them out.

Us fighters thrive on performing and entertaining a crowd.

They say aim for the stars, but I want to aim beyond the stars.

When I first went into a boxing gym I watched Kovalev fight on TV and now my name is spoken about in the same light as him, now I'm fighting him.

It was boxing, but I also feel it was my drive and ambition that kept me away from the stupidness, and my calculation.

You need to mourn, you need to be upset, to give yourself time to replenish. Then you use it all as fuel to get stronger.

I know that you need to be entertaining at the beginning to get people interested, and what interests people is knockouts and excitement.

I never shy away from my childhood and where I was raised because it made me who I am today.

I want to make all my family proud, particularly my mum, Sonia.

You have to have plans. But the important thing first is to do your job in the ring. If you do that properly, then success will come.