"All I do is hit somebody in the mouth. It's a whole lot easier than working for a living. Don't make anything noble out of what I do." When asked how he viewed his boxing career.

"Sure, I'd love to fight him. But I have my price, twenty-five cents and a loose woman." On if he'd like to fight Gerry Cooney.

"You run for 45 minutes, you train for an hour and a half, and the rest of the time you just hang out and talk tough." On the typical day of a pro boxer.

"This fight will be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I've been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious." On his upcoming fight with Michael Dokes.

"If you screw up in tennis, it's 15-love. If you screw up in boxing, it's your ass, darling!" On how tough fighting can be.

"I miss having bottle fatigue. Abstinence is for monks - not for me. This kind of life is really over-rated. I mean, I'm actually getting to sleep before I have breakfast." On keeping sober during training.

"I've always thought the greatest crime a man can do is take himself too seriously. I mean, something like fighting is pretty ridiculous to take seriously. What I do is hit people, I'm not promoting anything that is real or valuable." On how he looks at fighting for a living.


On the Larry Holmes fight, Cobb's biggest ever bout.

"No, Larry don't hit as hard as Earnie Shavers. No-one hits as hard as Shavers. If there was a fighter that hit harder than Shavers, I shoot him!"

"I wasn't talking to Holmes in there. Every time I felt like saying something to him I found it hard because he kept putting his left hand in my mouth."

"Hey, you're a white guy, do something about this!" To the ref in the Holmes fight.

"I'd have been more active in there, if only I'd been a little more sober."

"Let's party!" To Holmes as they touched gloves for round 15.

"I don't think his hands could take the abuse." On a possible rematch with Holmes.

And finally, three of Cobb's absolute gems.

"I can do my sport no greater service." On being informed that commentator Howard Cosell had hung up his mike after being so appalled at the one-sidedness of the Holmes-Cobb fight.

"Boxing writers are the only people out there who have less constructive jobs than what I do. I don't do nothing but hit people, and those mothers don't do nothing but write about what I do!"

"Yeah, I've been KO'd. Once. By a Mexican bantamweight. How come? Six of my buddies were swinging him around by the heels at the time."