At one time, when I was first starting, when I was first champion, I wanted to be undisputed champion so I could hold all the belts and no one else could say they were champion. Then you realize the boxing business, the politics, get involved and it's not very likely you can accomplish all that.

Every fighter has a different agenda. Every promoter has a different agenda for their fighter. Every manager has a different agenda. So things change all the time.

I want people to look back at my career and say, 'That guy never backed down from anyone.'

A lot of fighters are counted out after a loss, and it's really what you do afterward that offers an explanation to your career.

I never had a dream to be a boxer.

I never dreamt to be headlining a pay-per-view card. That was never a goal.

Growing up in Oxnard you're a Cowboys fan, bro. I remember when I was like six, seven years old my cousin gave me a sweatshirt that said 'Cowboys' on it and ever since then I said I'm going to support the Cowboys.

I can do a lot of things that other fighters can't.

One loss is not the end of my career.

I would love to fight anybody at the welterweight limit with a belt.

I was fighting at 125 pounds when I was 15 years old... then became a champion at 126 pounds at 25 years old.

I'm fighting champion after champion. Those are the fights that will excite me the most and motivate me the most.

If I did a multiple-fight deal, I could probably get more money but it's not always about the money.

I want to add to my legacy because, in the end, that's going to be the most valuable for my career.

My dad had a third-grade education in Mexico. Third grade. My mom had a fifth-grade education. They were raised in a poor home... They got married and they had their family, but there's hardly any future.

It came like a natural thing for me, and I liked it. That's how my amateur career started. But again, no interest in a future in boxing. I just thought it was like a little pastime, something to do.

I want to be great. I want to prove to everybody that I am great.

I know what I'm capable of. My dad, my brother, know what I'm capable of. They've seen me in the ring sparring. They know me better than anyone else.

Errol Spence, I really want that fight because everyone says it's too much, too risky. That's exactly why I want to do it. That's a guy who could put me on top as far as best fighter in the world.

I trust my brother and my dad. They know my capabilities and my skills. If they tell me to do something, they know best.

I like to wear cowboy gear once in a while. Whenever the occasion comes. In the ring, we used to wear a poncho and the hat.

I'm never out there looking for the KO. If it's there, I'll take it.

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.

No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.

When a body moves, it's the most revealing thing. Dance for me a minute, and I'll tell you who you are.

Dancers are made, not born.

People dance at any age.

Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.

The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.

Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.

I am a performer. I go on stage and make a fool of myself.

I found that dance, music, and literature is how I made sense of the world... it pushed me to think of things bigger than life's daily routines... to think beyond what is immediate or convenient.

When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint.

I cannot stand authority.

I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts.

I'm a news junkie.

I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.

I - you know, I'm not an actor.

I think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.

I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.

People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.

I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.

No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that's my real vocation, and I have to serve it.

Nobody is born a dancer.

Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.

The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.

Dancing is my obsession. My life.