Joe Calzaghe

From 13 years old, I was treated like a professional.

My career has been very difficult. People respect the fact that I haven't just turned professional like Amir Khan or Audley Harrison, and it's been, 'Here's a million pound' - for spoilt brats to fight a couple of fights.

My first boxing memory is watching Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard on television.

I find it quite sad to see the likes of Evander Holyfield carrying on past their sell-by date.

There comes a time in any proud sportsman's career when you have to make the difficult decision to stop.

I definitely was a big puncher early on in my career, and I used to load up with my left hand. Then, towards the end of my career, I had hand problems and needed injections in my hands for the pain.

The world title in a second weight division and a win in America is just the icing on the cake of my career.

I like him as a guy, but I'm going to knock him out - Roy Jones is just a prop in a fairytale ending to a great career for me.

It's one of the biggest disappointments of my boxing career, not going to the Olympics.

I don't want my career to peter out fighting meaningless fights; I want to go against the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.

At the end of your career, you go, 'I'm gonna be able to retire undefeated and be one of the very, very few people in history to do it.' People were saying I should try and get to 50-0, but my number was 46 - that was it. I could have kept trying, but one loss would have spoiled everything.

There's no point looking good and losing. Winning is what it's all about, and you can't always look spectacular while doing it.