Gerry Cooney

Winning the Gloves made me believe I was somebody. ”

Most fighters, when they're finished, boxing turns its back on them. ”

When I was 15, I decided to take up the sport seriously, so I went down to the Y.M.C.A. My first day there, this little Italian guy beat my brains out. I decided to quit. Then I realized I really wanted to be a fighter. I worked at it, went back, and that little Italian guy didn't beat me up no more. ”

Looking back, I couldn't get enough fights because Don King owned most of the top 10 fighters, and he never gave me a fight. ”

I don't overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more 'Hail Mary' punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position. ”

When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor. ”

Too many fighters stay in the game for too long. They stay because it's awfully hard to walk away from the roar of the crowd. Really hard. You live for that and so you stay too long. And you might have a wife and kids to feed. So you keep fighting because you don't know how to do anything else. ”

I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me. ”

I was lucky. I held on to some of my money. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after boxing. But I found what I wanted to do. ”

I learned a lot from the Holmes fight. I learned about styles and the pressure. I'm more prepared now. ”