Devon Alexander on his background and his December 7 fight with Shawn Porter on Showtime:
"I grew up pretty rough. I grew up down in north St. Louis. Gangs, drugs, fighting. I made it my point to continue to stay in the gym, go to school, graduate, become something in life. Because most of the people around me wasn't becoming anything. A lot of people didn't make it out, but I did.
"I'd rather be here (in the gym), because this is where champions are made. The sweat smell, the smell of leather. Dirty ring. Dirty floor. I came from nothing to something. I didn't have any state of the art anything to become champion and I don't need it now.
"I'm my own worst critic. Each fight that I have, I study myself and I go back and see what I could have did. It's gonna be an exciting fight. You have two guys that are determined not to lose, determined to go to the next level. I'm a throwback fighter, I'll fight anybody. It's juts another fight that I gotta get past to solidify myself to get to the point I wanna be, one of the top fighters pound-for-pound, and in the Hall of Fame."