I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. But I had gotten in a lot of fights 'cause in the neighborhood I grew up in, that wasn't equated with bad behavior almost. I mean, we'd fought like it was another game. 'You wanna play stick ball today?' 'Nah, let's go fight.'
I wasn't a bad kid. My dad left when I was young, so I didn't have much discipline, not that I'm making excuses. I was always out and about and had a good time as a kid, so I've done alright.
I wasn't a good kid in school. I wasn't a bad kid. I just didn't focus. My grades weren't good. I mucked around, you know, a phase everyone went through.
I was perpetually this B-minus kid vacillating between eagerness and depression. I wasn't a bad kid, and I definitely wasn't aggressive, but I was a sad kid.
I believe I had an unfair reputation. If people think I was a bad kid, I was a bad kid to them. But people close to me know I'm not.
When I was a kid, there was kind of a given that there were some really bad, racist police out there. That's just what America was like when I was a kid.
I want the next 16-year-old kid who looks like me to know he's not automatically the bad guy. Hopefully, that kid can look at Mustafa Ali and say, 'Hey, he's not the bad guy, and I don't have to be, either.'
And what we students of history always learn is that the human being is a very complicated contraption and that they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of the good, and the devil take the hindmost.
When it comes to partisan politics, everyone is a hypocrite. And all they care about is whether it hurts or helps them ... Is it good or bad for the Democrats? Is it good or bad for the Republicans? Is it good or bad for Jews, or good or bad for blacks, or is it good or bad for women? Is it good or bad for men? Is it good or bad for gays? That's the way people think about issues today. There is very little discussion of enduring principles.
Being bullied is the reason I got into boxing. When I was 14, I was being bullied by a kid in junior high school. I wanted to do this the right way. So we went to a boxing gym. We boxed, I beat him up in the ring. He never bullied me again and I found my passion in the sport of boxing.
Every day as a kid, I went to the boxing gym. I knew boxing before I knew anything else. And I was once told if you show your child how to do something and you constantly push them, then eventually they'll become masters. They'll become a master of their craft. So that's probably what happened with me and the sport of boxing.
People always ask my mom what I did as a kid. My mom says, "He wasn't a bad kid. He was never an unruly kid, always listened and obeyed."
I was just such a quiet kid. I found boxing when I was 14 years old. I went down to the gym because my brother, who used to beat me up all the time, introduced me to boxing. I found boxing to be a sport that I felt safe in because I controlled what was in those four squares.
I was a bad kid. I was a really naughty kid. I couldn't read or write. And that was me punishment - going to acting school.
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.
From the time I started boxing, my dream was to win an Olympic gold medal. At 10, I can't say I knew how big the Olympics are. I just knew that every kid in the gym wanted to win an Olympic gold medal. Every kid in every gym probably wants to win an Olympic gold medal.