Cus D'Amato Quotes

The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters. - Cus D'Amato

Heroes and cowards feel exactly the same fear. Heroes just react to it differently.

There are very few new things in this world, very few. That's why people that are young, if they're smart, try to profit from the experience of an older guy so they won't have to go through all the pain and suffering. But a certain amount of pain and suffer is good, because it makes a person think they've learned.

Many people who have been around boxing all those years never had a champion, certainly a heavyweight champion ... For that to happen in one's lifetime is so improbable. I got Floyd Patterson, then, here, at the age of 76, I was fortunate to come in contact with this young man who has, in my opinion, all the requirements to be a champion that I believe he's going to be, maybe the best that ever lived.

Mike's (Tyson) punch is like an atomic bomb in that it is relative to nature. Both have no value unless you have a means of conveying it to the target. He is boxing-smart.

There is no such thing as a natural puncher. There is a natural aptitude for punching and that is different. Nobody is born the best. You have to practice and train to become the best.

If you can hit your opponent with two punches, you don't hit him with one. Get off with some bad intentions in there. Believe in yourself. A guy can feel it if you don't believe in yourself. Set your mind to make yourself do it.

When you get hit that's when you've got to be calm. A professional fighter has to learn how to hit and not get hit, and at the same time be exciting. That's what professional boxing is about. You've got to be clever, you've got to be smart, and not get hit, and when you're able to do this, you're a fighter.

Losers are winners who quit, ... even if you lose ... you still win ... if you don't quit.

Emotions, particularly anger, are like fire. They can cook your food and keep you warm, or they can burn your house down.

When two men step into the ring, one and only one deserves to win. When you step into the ring, you gotta know you deserve to win. You gotta know destiny owes you victory , cause you trained harder than your opponent. You sparred harder. You ran farther.

I never teach until I've spoken to the fighter. I have to first determine his emotional state, get his background, to find out what I have to do, how many layers I have to keep peeling off so that I get to the core of the person so that he can recognize, as well as I, what is there.

To see a man beaten not by a better opponent but by himself is a tragedy.

The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire.

A fighter has to know fear.

People who are born round don't die square.

No matter what anyone says, no matter the excuse or explanation, whatever a person does in the end is what he intended to do all along.