I've tasted the bitter beatings.

When I was 11 my school held a sports day near Crystal Palace. We were told we were going to play a rugby match. The ball was eventually passed to me and I was obviously expected to run with it. I took one look at all these players charging towards me, placed the ball on the ground and walked off the pitch.

Fortunately, I was technically skilled, so I didn't have to bludgeon people, I didn't have to batter them.

To be accused of ignoring my roots is pig ignorant.

You play football, rugby, tennis. You do not play boxing. When a sportsperson is in a game, when it gets too much, you quit. But in boxing you can't quit. You have to be taken out.

It's the only thing that allowed me to win so many championship fights and allowed me to put up with the bigotry of the media, the keyboard warriors, the critics. I've endured it all because, spiritually, I am buoyant, alive.

Michael Watson is a part of me. It's in my head, it's in my grain. There are scars within me. Therefore, those scars are what allows me to steer and protect other fighters.

Boxing is a mug's game.

I am not a meathead.

I'm a gentle, considerate, giving man.

My mother imparted on me that I must be a good custodian of my father's name and that is what I ask of my children. One should conduct themselves in the correct manner, respect one's elders and do the right thing.

For lunch I like corned beef, white rice and fried onions, which I've eaten for as long as I can remember. My father used to make it; now, no one does it like me.

The feeling between two fighters is profound. We go places where normal people don't go. You smell a man's blood, it smells like rust. You get into a clench, you feel his strength, you feel his desperation, he feels yours. You're sharing this.

In accordance to the way that Benn speaks, he is not educated. Sure, he's educated to a certain extent, but under different circumstances he would be a bouncer on some door in the West End and he'd have three kids from three different women... I am a superior person to that. I have finer points.

I was sensitive, I was emotionally intelligent.

Obsession is a synonym for magic. Magic is a synonym for genius. It's a knack. It's an aptitude.

I am always fully in tune with the interviewer, who is usually trying to make me look silly. My objective is quite the opposite during an interview: I never use my wit or my intellect to make the interviewer look silly.

My objective as a mentor, as a father, as a manager and as a former participant of the great game of boxing is to protect mine, but also the opponent. Especially if I can see things which I have experienced before.

The people who have done it - I have been in there - a lot of people love boxing but they have not actually been in there, and haven't tasted the bitterness of a beating.

I was a speed freak once. I had an Aston Martin when I first made it big and I used to take it to its limits. I once drove from Lewes to London in 45 minutes - mad.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

I failed my HGV licence three times.

At 19, I decided to turn professional and accepted my first fight for $250 at the Atlantis Hotel, Atlantic City, on October 3 1985. It set up my whole career and life.

I've prospered because of my father. I know I'll never be his equal, but I've prospered because I've honoured my parents.

My father, who was illiterate, smoothed iron for Ford Dagenham and we'd get up at 5;30 A.M. to give him a jump-start. My mother was a nurse and part of the Windrush generation. Growing up in east London, we were financially poor, but rich in hope and dignity, and we were happy.

I moved to New York aged 16, and worked part-time in a Korean store in South Bronx selling groceries, bread and confectionery. I earned $10 and it was painful because I didn't want to be there. I also worked in Debenhams as a kid, and a Wimpy in Brighton when I was 20.

A lot of people think my head is flat.

There's a correct way to succeed. The incorrect way is to do things incorrectly.

I've became a coffee drinker since I gave up boxing. I also love to eat anything cooked by a Jamaican. Carbs like rice, yellow yam, Renta yam, sweet yam. Also salt fish fried with onions.

Most of the planet is covered with water, so there must be a clue to its worth in that fact.

Broccoli is not as bad as people make out. It might give you wind, but I'd prefer to have wind and have good health. Health is the number one thing on the planet. However, I am quite partial to rum and raisin ice cream.

I don't drink in public. I don't swear on TV. All I want is for people to say Chris Eubank is an all-right guy.

My father never played with me. I can remember my father picking me up - once. I can remember my father telling me behind a closed door that he loved me - once.

I probably give 80% more to my children than my father gave to me and still it doesn't come up to scratch. I don't feel guilty about it. Do my children love me? I think that is self-evident. Will they have psychological scars? No, because they have a wonderful mummy.

I am a sensitive, emotionally conditioned human being, and I have suffered racist abuse.

The Watson fight was the worst beating I ever took in a ring, but I couldn't quit.

No one escapes the long arm of the law, they are a business, they are very good at what they do and eventually they will catch up with you.

I am tough. I am relentless.

I am a strong father.

I am not a conventional man.

I am benevolent.

Boxing is the more dangerous activity from the rugby player's and the general public's point of view, but to me rugby is far more dangerous so I would prefer my sons to box. I love my children too much and do not want to watch them getting hurt. This is in no way intended as a criticism of rugby, which I consider to be a fantastic sport.

I admire rugged hard men who play rugby because it's something I would never contemplate.

Fear gives you your intensity, it gives you your game.

DeGale has the pedigree that is spoken about in terms of gold medallists and former world champions.

Money's just a medium. I am extremely wealthy in all other regards.

I'm not bankrupt of effervescence. I'm not bankrupt of craic.

I'm not bankrupt of fun, life, my dignity, my character, my essence.

I shouldn't be called eccentric. I should be called a normal guy.

When I finished boxing, all that was available was commentating. But that's not me. I've got too much artistic licence to get out.