Mama Fight

Mama Fight "Only by taking actions, your life will change." Our volunteer coach is also a filmmaker and an inspirational lecturer.

08/29/2026

'I was never good in school. I quit in my sophomore year at Brockton High. I just didn't care for the books. I wanted to be a big-league ball player. I had a minor-league trial as a catcher, but my arm went so dead I couldn't throw. AIl the jobs I held until I started fighting were dead ends. I was only a manual laborer - the strong kid with little ambition and big muscles. I was a nobody. In the ring I became a somebody.'

- Rocky Marciano

08/15/2026

'All boxers accept that they have to get hit with punches, but there is a very thin line between taking enough punches and taking too many. If you step over that dividing line, you are gone: your reflexes are slower, you lose that little bit of awareness of punches coming towards you, that inbuilt radar that enables you to see punches coming and avoid them. You lose that, the more punches you absorb.

On the way up through the ranks you have to fight good opponents at each different level; top fifteen, top ten, top five and then the world title. All the way through those stages, you have to pick opponents who can give you a test, yet you must have the ability to beat them without taking too many punches. It's a vicious circle; if you want to progress like that, learning without being hit, you have to be defensive-minded, but if you want to attract the crowds, you have to be aggressive, and when you're aggressive you're going to get hit.

It's very difficult to come forward and entertain the people, beat all these punchers and world-class fighters, and yet not take punches. It is hard to create a balance, but the ones who manage to do so are the ones who get there, the champions. Thank God I still have plenty of savvy, but I have to admit that I suffered a certain amount of damage. My memory is not as reliable as I'd like it to be, and there are times when I say silly things out of context, that I'd prefer not to have said. People will say, 'Sure we all do that', but they don't, or at least to the extent that an ex-pug would. It's the price we have to pay, and we budget for it.'

- Barry McGuigan

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08/15/2026

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'I didn't lose a fight until I was eleven, but when I did, to a kid named Cecil Collins, it devastated me. I came home and told Mama I was quitting the sport. Big mistake.

'You go on back in that ring and beat that boy!' She said. This from a woman who didn't want me boxing to begin with. 'You don't quit until you do what you set out to do!' So I went back and fought Cecil again. And again I lost. 'Go back and fight him again!' Mama said.

I did, and this time I beat him. It felt wonderful, like I'd just climbed Mt. Everest or hit the winning home run in the World Series. 'Well there you go!' Mama said, beaming. 'Now you can quit!'

I didn't quit - there were some things even my wise Mama didn't understand - but you get the point. If I hadn't gone back in there and tried again and again, I probably would have spent a large part of my life regretting it. But Mama knew how I'd feel once I won, all proud and happy. Her attitude wasn't, 'See? I was right.' It was, 'Don't you feel good having finished what you started?' It was that feeling that shaped my later approach to life, not the fact that I'd done what Mama asked, and that's why the lesson was so valuable. It really came from me; Mama just pushed me to get there.'

- Evander Holyfield

08/06/2026

'It was my dream from nine years of age that I wanted to be champion. My family life gave me faith and a desire to lift myself above my environment. Boxing was the only way, but I sincerely loved it.

It's difficult for me to discuss my career without sounding as if I was making excuses. I won the first fight with Joe Louis. The officials were looking at some different fight. In my first fight with [Ezzard] Charles he was the better man. The second could have gone either way. The third gave me the title. [Rocky] Marciano said his first fight with me was his hardest. From my side, I don't consider it one of my best. Our second was when I discovered I had reached the end of the road. I didn't hear from count one to three. From three to seven my head was seemingly clear, and I was waiting to rise at eight. Between eight and ten I blacked out.

How could anyone accuse me of being so fickle and low as to stoop to filth at the end of my career when things were going well for me? I never did anything I was ashamed of. I love being a man, and able to live with myself.

Boxing is very viable nowadays. In 15 fights you can be top of the heap. Back then you could still be fighting preliminaries after 90 fights. It was a great tribute when I was called the old man of boxing. I was pleased to have such strength at that age.'

- Jersey Joe Walcott

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Burnaby, BC
V5E4M7

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6047777000

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