Wladimir Klitschko: “In the fight with Charles Shufford, I guess. It was only a ten-inch left hook.”

Arturo Gatti: “Wilson Rodriguez, left hook. When I knocked him out and I couldn’t see. It felt great, because I couldn’t see really. I was in big trouble. It was my first title defense. And I ordered a car – that James Bond car – BMW Z3. That’s how I remember. I had ordered a car, so when I went down in the 2nd round, I saw the car fly by…I won’t be able to get this if I don’t win this fight! Because I wouldn’t be able to afford it. But then I knocked him out in the 6th so I said, Yeah! I remember that left hook was one of the greatest ever thrown actually. (How did you set it up?) To the body first, then to the head, that’s it.”

Shannon Briggs: “The one that I missed Lennox Lewis with [laughs]. That left hook I missed him with. I said, Damn. I got excited. I looked over and saw my boy gone. I said, Oh shit, I’m gonna kill somebody now. I just saw him hurt. You know, I was very young, inexperienced. You remember me – I was a crazy kid, not focused like I am now.”

Jesse James Leija: “I’ve had so many pretty good knockouts and good punches. As long as I hit you, I was happy [smiles]. Maybe one of the better punches I threw was against Troy Dorsey. And I stopped him in the 5th round and it was a great fight up until then. Non-stop action. Then I caught him with an overhand right and stopped him. That’s a punch I remember. Now Troy Dorsey and I are great friends. He even helped me with sparring for my last fight with Gatti.”

Kermit Cintron: “It was the right hand against Teddy Reid. It was like the perfect shot. That was the best shot I’ve ever thrown. Slipped a jab and came back with a right – hit him, stung him, then came back with a left hook-right hand. And that right hand – that’s what did it. Perfect. Landed right on his jaw. Couldn’t get any better. He just went down to the floor. That was it.”

Antonio Tarver: “Overhand left…Roy Jones. I hit him with the perfect shot. It’s been labeled as the perfect shot. (How did you set it up?) He threw a lazy right hand and I stepped into it with my overhand left. And before he could get his hand back up, it was Good Night Irene [smiles].”

Mitch “Blood” Green: “That’s a good one. How do I exlain that one. Don King messed me up so bad I can’t think! Best punch was when I turned pro. That was my best punch. When I fought a guy named Playboy Louis, we fought in Virginia or Atlantic City (actually Kingston, NY in 1985.) And the referee asked him if he was hurt. And he asked him where was he? And he said, St. Louis. That was my best punch. Right hand. Dropped him.”

Eddie Mustafa Muhammad: “Left hook against Marvin Johnson. Lifted him up off the ground. Lifted him up so high. I had time to hit him with the right hand. He turned around, then he went down. I called that my ‘Helicopter Punch.’ That was my best one. Because they kept showing it over and over on Wide World of Sports (ABC TV). (How did you set it up?) Marvin’s southpaw. So he threw his right jab, I just slipped his right jab and hooked him to the liver. I was gonna bring the second hook to the head. But the first hook to the liver was so devastating, it lifted him right up in the air.”

Johnny “Bump City” Bumphus: “I can’t remember the year, but I can remember the opponent. And that was Michael Bradley. I think in Lancaster, PA (in 1983). It was a right uppercut. Dropped him in the 1st round. And everybody thought the guy was gonna knock me out. I ended up knocking him down seven times in that fight. Right uppercut – dead on the chin. First round. But due to my dismay – or happiness – he knocked me down in the 2nd round with a straight right. But I went on to knock him down six more times and stopped him. If you want to know what it’s like to get your bell rung, just spin in a circle, turn around and around till you can’t stand up any more. Then lay on your back. And try to get up. That’s what it’s like when you get knocked out [laughs].”

Mike McCallum: “The left hook to Donald Curry. It was one of the greatest knockouts in the decade. And it was one of the greatest fights that I fought. Donald Curry – he was a great man. And he hit me with a right before that in the 2nd round that…I was never hit like that before. And I was lucky to stay up, because I was in great shape. When he hit me, I said, You hit me hard! I’m gonna hit you back harder. That left hook was the most memorable punch I’ve ever thrown in my entire career. (How did you set it up?) Right uppercut. He was throwing a right hand. I threw a right uppercut then left hook. Because he was pulling back after he threw the right hand. I used that right uppercut, stepped to the side, came back with the left.”

Howard Davis Jr.: “My first 8-rounder – Dominic Monaco (4th pro fight). I fought him in Miami in 1977. And I knocked him down with a right and nobody saw the punch but the referee. When they did the replay, they still missed it. That’s how fast it was. Even in slow-mo it was fast. It was a punch where he came forward when I was going forward. Most fighters raise their elbows when they throw the right and the opponent sees it. If you don’t raise your elbows, they never see it. And my right hand was right behind the jab. The left-right is almost like one punch. If the jab is quick, it closes their eyes. Then they don’t see the right.”

Bob Foster: “My favorite punch was always a left hook. I could knock out an elephant with my left hook. The Mike Quarry fight. Did you ever see the film of that? I was right, I was just perfect that night. I could’ve beat anybody that night.”

Tim Witherspoon: “When I knocked out Quick Tillis, which a lot of people don’t know. I hit him with two right hands and he went down. But Anders Eklund was the most exciting one-punch that I ever landed. I knocked Anders Ecklund out with one punch. (How did it feel at contact?) It felt good. But I felt kinda bad the way he fell. It felt good in my hand, I felt it in all of my arm. But I felt kinda bad after seeing him go down.”

John Scully: “To tell you the truth, the single best punch I ever landed was in an amateur fight. I had lost in my first national tournament ever, the 1986 National Golden Gloves, when I got beat by a top-10 ranked guy named Kertis Mingo. When I saw him again almost two years later in the finals of the National PAL Championships I was so intent on beating him, I was almost maniacal during the fight. I walked him and chased him down for two rounds until I caught him at the end of the second with such a wicked and hard right hand that it was just like Julian Jackson always described his best shots. He said he ‘didnt feel a thing’ when he landed them and I didn’t either. As a professional, I think it was against Herman Ferrar in Connecticut. I stopped him in the sixth round with the same kind of right hand and when I hit him I didnt know how much power it carried or how clean it was until he dropped in front of me. I was never a real ‘puncher’ in the true sense of the word but on those nights I was.”

Winky Wright: “No. It’s just the amount of the punches all together. No one moment defines any specific point in my career. I’m defined over a whole career of fighting. Because I feel my longevity in the game and what I’ve accomplished in that amount of time, with all the obstacles that I had to overcome is what makes Winky Wright a great fighter.”

Felix Trinidad: “The right hand I gave to Maurice Blocker. Right when he went to the canvas. (How did you set it up?) It was a combination of six punches. Came all together. And the last one was the right. It was the punch that gave me the first title belt around my waist.”

Jose Torres: “Left hook to the body of Willie Pastrano. When he went down. And he was screaming of pain when I hit him. And nobody could hear because there was 31,000 people – and 30,000 was Puerto Ricans [laughs]. And they were screaming right here in the Garden. (How did you set it up?) He threw a right hand. I bent to the side and I hit him with a left hook to the body. It was the right opening. And the timing was perfect. And the location was perfect. So I took advantage of it. (TKO 9 in 1965 to win Light Heavyweight title).”

Buddy McGirt: “When I knocked out Vincent Relaford in 1987. It was a double hook. It was a hook to the body, back to the head. In the 12th round with ten seconds left. (How did you set it up?) He was just moving, he came in and I dropped it. Just said, B-B-Bop. That was it. Like instinct. And he dropped. It felt, it just felt great.”

Jose “El Nino” Ribalta: “Against Leon Spinks, in the first round I hit him with a straight right. It was a first round knockout (1987).”

Richard Pierson: “The best punch I ever landed was a right uppercut on the chin of James Singleton when we fought on a ESPN2 Friday Night Fights un-telivised bout. James broke my nose and closed my eye in the first round of the bout and had me in trouble but I made it through the round. He landed a few more good shots. Between rounds but I figured his rhythm out and timed his jab with my uppercut and put him out. That wasn’t a fight, that was actually my first war.

(Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko oil painting by New Jersey-based artist John Murawski.)

Earl Lee Riser: American boxing doesn’t need to rebuild. They already produce lots of great fighters of the sport compared to the other countries. American boxing did a lot of things to make the sport more colorful and a lot more exciting. And America is still the main destination of the sport.

Bill Ma: American boxing is has changed over the years. They are more into the entertainment outside of boxing instead inside the ring. There is a lot more lip service and trash talking outside the ring while bringing boring fights in the ring. Trainers and promoter should emphasize that their fighters have to fight instead of running constantly. Hugging and clinching. I remember that last fight with Alexander and Bradley where it was heavily hyped, which zero has to go. And when it came to fight night, it was an awful mess. Extremely boring, lacking in action, and nobody was on the edge of their seat. We should look at the Mexican fighters and look at their audience. Why has Mexican boxing become just as popular as ever in Mexico? They have impressive ratings when they brought back boxing in terrestrial tv. It is because these fighters provide a lot of action. Sometimes when I hear slick fighters, I kind of cringe because often it means boring. Ali was a slick fighter that wasn’t afraid to engage. Make the fighters fight, and it will bring American boxing back. Why do we still talk about great fights like Gatti vs Ward, two mid average fighters that brought one of the most exciting fights in history of boxing. It is due to these two fighters willing to lay it all on the line inside the ring. Thats boxing. Not running or a lot of clinching.

Voltaire Amogues: Lifetime ban to those who duck. Send Al Haymon back to the music industry and pressure those coward, protected boxers.

Guadalupe Gonzales: Tell the boxers it’s not how much money you want to get, it’s about what type of impact you want leave for the sport. As for Kirkland, if he wants it bad enough correct the mistake and, get a get-well fight asap. A loss isn’t the end of the journey, its a speed bump. The best fighters have losses – Manny Pacquiao for example.

Petar Djukic: Get them to fight in a Super Six style tournament. Careers will be made, careers will be broken, but at least they will fight names and tough opponents and all of us who want American boxing to come back have to boycott all the mismatches, look at the Khan fight – Sky had to pull out because apparently barely 50 bought it on pay-per-view. If this happened in America, HBO would have to put on the proper fights not mismatches. And Cotto-Pacman was the first fight in ages I saw two great opponents share a ring. It freaked me out to be honest. I wasn’t used to it usually you focus on one fighter but having two masters in there it was weird focusing on two.

Benny Henderson Jr.: Trying to figure that out makes my head hurt.

Renaldo Snipes: The solution is recession or depression – back to being hungry.

Jhong Jong: Americans generated more great fighters than any other country in the history of the sport. Most of them have made the history of this sport and will be remembered forever.

Mario Eusebio Delmindo: All the glories are all in the past, we are talking about now. The rebuilding process starts in the amatuer level.

Michael Canja: To begin the renovation…GET RID OF FLOYD!

Bill Ma: Some fighters think all they have to do is run their mouth and that’s it. I remember just watching this loud mouth kid Adrien Broner. Runnng his mouth, over confident and boring as hell to watch. He was trying to fight like Floyd and totally didn’t respect his opponent Daniel Ponce De Leon. Many thought Ponce De Leon won the fight but Broner was given this fight. In some rounds Broner was barely throwing a punch while Ponce De Leon was punting on the pressure. Ponce De Leon was clearly the active fighter in the ring. In the end, everyone was practically criticizing the kid Broner, that he should be left out of TV. His style was so boring.

Mario Costa (former assistant trainer of Mike Tyson, manager of Arturo Gatti): I think the fighters are completely spoiled, too many toys, too many things. They don’t work hard. Tyson said it was all about hard work. He said he worked very hard in the gym and he turned into a beast. He said he would sometimes look better in the gym than he did in his fights. He worked very hard. Back then there were no phones, no parties, no drugs. They were more serious. Nowadays, there’s too many things that make them get off their training. They don’t concentrate, they don’t focus. The discipline is not there.

To be continued. Stay tuned for Part 2…

Education: Cal-State Northridge University BA Psychology.

Age: 43.

Place of Birth: San Francisco, CA

First boxing memory: Getting my ass kicked in sparring in 1996.

Boxing inspirations: Oscar De La Hoya, because he is such a smart business man and has a good heart. Not to mention, style, class and good looks!

Last book read: Reading “Salvador” by Joan Didion. It’s about the civil war in El Salvador in 1982. I hate war, but I have always been fascinated by the politics of war.

First job: Picking strawberries in the fields at 11 years old. It was actually pretty fun, but I knew then I wanted something more out of life.

Current car: Mercedes CLK.

First car: Toyota pick up.

Strangest Fight/Opponent: “…This girl was a nut! She kept taunting me in the ring saying, ‘C’mon bitch! knockout me out bitch!’ Then she’d turn and say, ‘Damn you’re hot [laughs]!’”

Favorite movies: Rocky’s 1, 2, 3, 6, An American Me, Gone With The Wind, Born on the 4th of July.

Greatest boxing moment: All the fights I opened for Oscar De La Hoya.

Most painful boxing moment: The day my trainer Art Lovett died and losing to Brook Dierdorff, twice.

Favorite boxers to watch: All the females of boxing.

Funny boxing memory: Fredia Gibbs, best female fighter ever, we were so crazy, the things we did in boxing… I’ll never tell [smiles].

Embarrassing boxing memory: Peeing in the ring.

Hardest puncher encountered: A girl I easily beat because her skill wasn’t very good, but she hit so hard it felt like I was getting hit by a steel pipe. I still have brain damage from her. I will never reveal her name [smiles].

Toughest opponent: Jessica Rackozy. I thanked God for every round I made it out alive.

Childhood dream(s): To be Rocky Balboa, to live that life.

Strangest fight/opponent: My last fight! I didn’t know if she wanted to kill me or have sex with me. It was very strange.

Favorite meal: After the weigh in! Cheeseburger, fries, Coke and chocolate cake with ice cream.

Favorite ice cream flavor: Chocolate/peanut butter.

People qualities most admired: Charitable, love for humanity, love for learning about the world and one’s own self.

Ht: 5-11 Wt: 175

DOB: October 28, 1982 In: Port Au Prince, Haiti

Resides: Laval, Quebec

First Boxing Memory: “Was when I get in the gym in Montreal and it was my brother who brought me to the gym. He was the Golden Gloves champion. That’s the way I started.”

Inspirations: “Roy Jones was my man. He’s still my man because I’m with him in the up and down. Right now Jones is a little bit down but I’m still a huge fan of him.”

Last Book Read: “That was a book with Anthony Robbins about the mindset. Power Of The Mind.”

Favorite Movie: “Training Day.”

First Job: “I was 17. That was my first one and my last one. I was working in the subway restaurant making sandwiches for people. And I asked for Sundays off because I was supposed to go in the boxing tournament and she said no. So I quit the job.”

First Car: “Was a white Maxima, Nissan.”

Current Car: “I drive – I got many cars – Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne.”

Favorite Meal: “Steak.”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Vanilla.”

Greatest Sports Moment: “My last fight against Chad Dawson. Because I was the underdog, everybody was telling me, This guy has no chance. But I need to show I belong with the best in the world and I’m going to become myself a legend. So when I won the fight, I said, I told you guys.”

Most Painful Moment: “When I fought the rematch against Adrian Diaconou. I separated my shoulder three times during the fight. The first time was the third round. And I finished the 12 really strong. That was a painful fight. But I never give up. I never quit. And that’s why I’m still the world champion.”

Which Fight Were You At Your Very Best: “My last one against Dawson. Mentally and phsyically I was not 100% but I was 110%.”

Favorite Boxers To Watch: “Roy Jones — though he’s not prime time any more. Roy Jones is my man. It’s because of him that I’m right here talking to you and to be the world champion. And I have a lot of respect for this man, for this boxer.”

Funny Boxing Memory: “When I knocked out my best friend (Anthony Decarie) in sparring with a body shot. That was really funny for me.”

Embarrassing Boxing Memory: “Maybe the first fight in England. I went overseas to fight Carl Froch. I lost. And that was kind of embarrassing to me. But I know that I did good, I went there, gave my best. I didn’t win the fight. But the rematch I guarantee you I’m gonna put up the victory.”

Favorite Sport Outside Boxing: “Back home our national sport is hockey. We won the gold medal in the last Olympics Games. So hockey is my best sport after boxing. (Play?) I’m a former hockey player and I was quite good [smiles]! But I chose boxing instead.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “Honesty. Honesty, to me, is really important in life. And you have to be a good, respectable person.”

On Next Opponent Bernard Hopkins: “I’m fighting not Bernard Hopkins, I’m fighting also a legend. I’m the young lion….Notice he has three F’s in my class. He’s a funny guy, he’s fast, and he’s about to get f****** up.”