Top 131 Quotes & Sayings by Joe Calzaghe

My father was a cocky, long-haired musician, a songwriter.

Spiders - hate 'em.

I am not an aggressive person. I am a disciplined, chilled, and relaxed guy.

I try to work out about four or five times a week. I'll do a little bit of cardio, half hour on the punchbag, or just go for a jog.

I pick my nose quite a bit.

Boxing definitely has a part to play in taking away unwanted aggression.

We had nothing, no money, when I was young. We lived in a council house. My dad struggled; my mum struggled. But that made me what I am. If I had everything on a plate from the start, maybe I would not have been a champion for 11 years.

When it comes to the singing part, I think I missed the boat - the whole family can sing except for me. But they can't fight, so I suppose I've been a bit more successful than them there.

I'm close to achieving something that very few boxers ever have - and that is to retire undefeated, like Rocky Marciano.

Promoting is a no-no - that's hard work. Training is a full-time job, but I don't have time to do that full-time. But managing is something I'll be good at.

I appreciate what I've achieved, and nearly all of that is because of my dad. He pushed me to train harder than I would have done if he wasn't there to discipline me.

The world title in a second weight division and a win in America is just the icing on the cake of my career.

Having been a fighter for 25 years, I know how to handle the fear. The fear is there, but I use it to motivate me.

When I was about 12, I realised I wasn't going to make it as a top footballer, but I won my first British ABA title at 13. From then on, I wanted to be a world champion.

Why am I not a household name in Britain? Why have I not got the recognition I deserve after so long? I think the fact that none of my fights are seen on terrestrial television is significant but, other than that, I don't exactly know. I really don't.

I was told as a teenager I'd never box again. I had a really bad wrist injury; I couldn't even shadow box for six months. I went through surgery just to try and manage it.

We're only human, and fear can eat away at you the closer you get to a big fight.

If you know you're just fighting for the money and you're not fighting for the championship, you're going to lose, so I thought, 'It's time for me to quit.'

I cried watching 'Million Dollar Baby.' I'm a big baby, man.

I thank God that I had such an amazing father who was my trainer as well.

I can't understand it myself - how nervous I was when I took the floor for 'Strictly Come Dancing.' I walk out with 50,000 people gathered in the Millennium Stadium to fight Mikkel Kessler in the unification fight for the super middleweight division in 2007, and I feel great... and here I am, wearing tight pants and Cuban heels, and freaking out.

You can never say never in this game, but I can't see myself boxing again. There's loads of things I want to do.

Boxing was my destiny.

Boxing's a very lonely sport. That ring is the loneliest place in the world.

Every fighter, when they box, wants to leave a mark in their sport, or a legacy, and I managed to do that beyond my wildest dreams.

I was born in London but brought up in Wales from the age of two.

Fighters never realise when it is time to walk away. They can't leave the buzz and adoration that surrounds being champion.

I didn't like school at all. I was bullied and didn't have a good time. Boxing was my escapism, and the ring was where I felt best.

I embraced every struggle because it made me the fighter I was.

I prayed before fights. Especially just before I got in to the ring. But I'd also have my iPod on, Prodigy and Linkin Park ripping through my ears.

When I boxed against Jeff Lacy, that was one fight that I was so proud of.

I don't want my career to peter out fighting meaningless fights; I want to go against the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.

I never really, really pushed my boys into boxing, but I guess it's in the blood.

It's not just a trainer - as a man, my dad was unbelievable. Even outside boxing, he was my friend as well. We were boxer and trainer in the gym, but as soon as that bell goes, we'd have a cup of tea, and we'd go on about normal life. We would just leave that bit behind. That's how we kept going.

I liked 'The Office' when it was on.

There's no point looking good and losing. Winning is what it's all about, and you can't always look spectacular while doing it.

It's one of the biggest disappointments of my boxing career, not going to the Olympics.

My mum is the opposite of my dad. She's a very private person, very shy and totally against boxing. She never watched any of my fights live. She hated me doing it.

You think that after becoming world champion, you're going to be a massive superstar with lots of lucrative bouts against great fighters, but that never materialised for me.

I like to give my kids the life I didn't have - they go to an excellent school; they have nice clothes, money for shopping. I'm quite generous with them, but they have fantastic manners - they're not spoilt.

I'm a Juventus fan, although I did support Chelsea for some time - mainly because of Gianfranco Zola. Zola is from the same town as my father Enzo, in Sardinia.

I agreed to be on 'Strictly Come Dancing' without watching the show. I got talked into it by my manager. And my God, I was crap at it.

Test match cricket - it's the most boring thing to watch. How they call themselves sportsmen I'll never know.

At 14, 15, everyone at school stopped talking to me, and I went completely into my shell. Basically, I'd be hiding. I had no friends. I hated it.

I've fought in Copenhagen before, and it's not the most hostile place in the world.

It's unbelievable when I think back to when I was a kid that one day I would have achieved so much through boxing, and to think my teachers laughed at me when I said I was going to be a boxer.

Ideally, it would be nice if you could earn enough money to kick on from boxing and use the finances to start a business. Realistically, that doesn't happen.

Before the Roy Jones fight, I knew I was going to retire because I couldn't train, my hands had gone, and the hunger had gone.

I'm a boxer, and every fight could be my last. You just have to remember Michael Watson to know what boxing can do to you.

At the end of your career, you go, 'I'm gonna be able to retire undefeated and be one of the very, very few people in history to do it.' People were saying I should try and get to 50-0, but my number was 46 - that was it. I could have kept trying, but one loss would have spoiled everything.

I like him as a guy, but I'm going to knock him out - Roy Jones is just a prop in a fairytale ending to a great career for me.

I remember every defeat I suffered as an amateur. They were rare enough to be burned into my brain, and that's why I can't bear the thought of losing.

I do like to travel.

Boxing's in my blood, so I'll always stay involved in that, and I'll probably do a bit of TV work as well, commentary and that.

You have to try things in life.

I don't seek the limelight. I'm perfectly happy with a quiet life and spending time with my family, but I deserve recognition.

I'm somebody from a little tiny town, who had boxed in leisure centres, and my last fight was in Madison Square Garden against one of the greats. What a great way to finish off.

My first boxing memory is watching Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard on television.

When I was 17, my mum made me work in a cake factory for three days - I hated it.

When I was 14, I told my careers adviser that I was going to be a world champion boxer. Of course she laughed.