I lost an amateur fight where it was supposed to be my last amateur fight before going pro and people were like, 'Oh, you think you're going to make this? You just got knocked out as an amateur?' And I went on to win 13 fights straight and become a world champion, the best in the world.
Thankfully I still have things I want to achieve so I can just set more goals. Now I want to unify, I want to have big fights and then one day move up and become a two-weight world champion.
My self-belief, really is what kept me going, I always believed I could be a great champion, a world champion.
There is not too much left for me to do, but I am sure there are a couple of great fights out there for me. I have basically achieved my goals. There are a few fights the public wants to see, and that is really what is left for me.
I set out in the beginning to be the heavyweight champion of the world. From a very young age, I was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Nothing else was a problem to me. That's what I'll finish doing.
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.
100 Muay Thai, boxing, and kickboxing fights. Six times world Muay Thai champion, five times European Muay Thai champion, very dominant UFC champion for three years. I know my legacy. They can say whatever they want to, but I'm huge.
To finally become world champion after losing out in three previous finals is very satisfying. It shows that if you stick to your goals and work hard, you can achieve them in the end.
Once I'm world Champion we can think about what fights are fun rather than fights that need to take place.
I made my debut on October 10, 2008, so it'll be seven years to the day that I could become world champion. That's a massive night to be crowned.
When you start boxing when you're 7 years old, that's your dream, to become world champion, and after that you want to become something bigger than world champion.
Having sport allowed me to forget about the ups and downs of my condition and think about a set goal, which was to become a Paralympic champion, to become a world champion.
The Jens Pulver fight was one that was on a massive level: I was a world champion fighting a former world champion, and a guy that I looked up to. We had a great fight.
Boxing should focus on pitting champion versus champion - those are the fights that everyone wants to see. The sports also needs to work on developing new heroes and personalities. I'd like to see more vignettes on fighters, focusing on their lives, goals and stories. Boxers need to be larger than life.
Confident fighters are dangerous fighters. I know that. But there other fighters who said before a fight they were stronger than me, hit harder, were going to knock me out. Walters is a good champion but really how many quality fights has he been in compared to where I have been in my career? We both have speed, we both have power. It's an explosive fight. This is going to end in a knockout. I will go into the ring and do my best.
You see, we don't know what our goals are. We learn our goals only in the process of getting there. "I don't know what I'm building but I'm going to enjoy building it and when I get through building it I'll know what it is." In doing psychotherapy you impress this upon patients. You don't know what a baby is going to become. Therefore, you take good care of it until it becomes what it will.