Quotes by Alton Merkerson

“Roy had gotten bored with boxing. He wasnt motivated for the first fight with Tarver, the second fight with Tarver or the fight with Johnson. He was tired of the whole boxing scene, because nothing he accomplished seemed to be good enough.”

“The fact of the matter is, that when you get to the status that Roy is in, and you are considered to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and youve won the heavyweight title -- youve reached the ultimate goal, so what else do you do?”

“As strange as it sounds, Roy wasnt motivated for those two fights. Roy is either self-motivated or hes not motivated at all. For those fights, he was bored. He was tired of pleasing other people. The second Tarver fight; he figured hed beaten Tarver the first time when he was weak and had trouble making weight so now it would be easy. I didnt get what I should have gotten out of him in camp. And with Glen Johnson, it was the same thing. You cant make a fighter train if he doesnt want to. He might come to the gym but he wont work right while hes there.”

“If Roy wants his father back, thats fine with me. Its working fine. Big Roy has his job, and I have my job. He does the things that he does, and I do the things that I do. Were both helping Roy.”

“Speed it up. Were in a flow.”

“There comes a time when action speaks louder than words. Constantly telling people what youre going to do like Tarvers doing and trying to explain why you didnt do what you were supposed to do the last time, thats not a positive thing. If Im going to shoot you, Im not going to tell you. Im just going to shoot you. Thats the frame of mind Roys in right now.”

“Once youve been known for being a great fighter, thats something that you cant take away. Personally, I dont think Roy has anything that he needs to prove to anybody because he had already proved that before by winning the middleweight, super-middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight titles and that can never be taken away. I dont think he is interested in proving anything to society or the boxing world - I think he is concerned with proving something to himself and doing the right thing.”

“I really thought Roy was going to retire after the Johnson fight. Thats what he told me, and I believed it. Then, in June, I went out to his farm. Roy wasnt there. I asked where he was, and his uncle said that he was out doing roadwork. A few weeks after that, Roy got the gym cleaned up. Then he started training; and the next thing I knew, there was a fight.”