On Manny Pacquiao-Frankie Gomez sparring
"(Gomez) is getting close. Frankie does well in the early rounds. He does really well. Then Manny does better in the later rounds, because he has more experience. But it's very competitive at this point."
On Pacquiao's retirement
"So far he says he's retiring no matter what. I might be the one hoping that something big is gonna happen, like, maybe Floyd one more time. He'd be healthy and do much better than he did the first time. I was very disappointed in the first fight, and I know Manny can do much better than that. I would love to see that fight one more time."
"We'll only go forward with that if Manny gives me the green light and wants to. It's not my decision, it's definitely his decision. Whatever he decides to do, I'm behind him."
"He's about 80 percent of when he was at his best. He's still up there. His work ethic is great, he still works really hard. He has a lot of speed. I think the religion gets in the way a little bit, because he doesn't want to hurt people. He tells me all he has to do is outpoint them. I said, well, if you had knocked [Marquez] out a little bit earlier, he wouldn't have gotten lucky and knocked you out. So I disagree with him on that point. I think winning by decision is not a goal. Winning by knockout is."
On the Kovalev-Pascal rematch
"In the gym, on the mitts and everything like that, we had a real good style. He looked really good. Even the warmup in the locker room was really great. In between rounds, I said, 'Where's that guy in the fuckin' dressing room?' Because that guy in the dressing room didn't really go to the ring. I was a little disappointed in him. Maybe this guy just has his number, because he's beaten him badly both times they fought. I wanted to stop the fight in the sixth round, he asked me for one more. I said if you can't go out there and change this, I have to stop it. He did do better in the next round, but it wasn't good enough for me. I didn't want him to get hurt in the fight. I think I made the right decision. I got booed pretty bad because of that, but I don't care about that. They can boo all they want. I care about people, and I care about my fighters mostly."
"It's a hard decision to make, but since we were getting beaten so badly from the first round on, he was hurt in the first round. I think he got knocked down in the first, they called it a slip. But he was getting hit more and more, and the punches were affecting him more and more. I started thinking about it in the fourth round. By six, I was ready to stop it. I gave him (one more round) because it was a title fight. But I think I did the thing the next round."
"He told me, he said, 'I want to continue.' I said, no, and I just turned and told the referee. And tha t was it. ... He cried a little bit. That shows me he cares. I like that emotion, that someone cares that much about the fight. I think he cares about fighting. Maybe he'll have another day, but maybe just not against a guy as strong as Kovalev. Kovalev beat him up both times, he knocked him out both times now, and he gave him a beating both times before that. So certainly we don't have a future with Kovalev, but there are some other fighters out there. I think he maybe needs to get a win first before he thinks about fighting anybody."
on Kovalev trying to collect on the bet: "Well, we weren't the kindest people in the world at the press conference, getting bananas out and all kinds of bullshit. So we deserve what we got. It's part of the game."
on Kovalev-Ward: "I like that fight a lot. Kovalev's a big, strong guy. Ward is a great boxer. I like both of them. Kovalev is actually a good friend of mine. He does train here quite a bit when he's not in Big Bear. He's always welcome here, and he knows that. I like Kovalev a lot, and I'd love to see that fight. I think Kovalev might be too strong for him and might be too much for him at this time, but Ward's a good boxer. He's not the most entertaining fighter in the world, but he is good at what he does. He's a very good boxer."
On Frankie Gomez
"I just hope he rises to what he should be. Frankie, he can beat all these guys, and after this fight I'm taking him to the Philippines with me for [Pacquiao's] training camp, and he's gonna really see what it takes to be a champion. He's been in here with good fighters before, but being in the Philippines in training camp, it's a hard place to be for eight weeks. But he's gonna do it. He's working on getting his passport together right now, and I'm gonna help him a little bit, because I'm not sure if he wants to go for sure, but I'm taking him."
"I think Frankie's talented enough to beat guys like (Amir Khan). He really is. I asked Golden Boy, 'let's pick it up after this fight.' Because if he's not ready now, he never will be."
"Once he gets a solid opponent and gets a world title fight, we'll have no more problems with him. He's just a little frustrated with the change of opponents all the time. Every time he fights, he gets, like, one opponent, and then it turns into the fifth guy down the line. A lot of people pull out against him. Even this fight, the guy we were supposed to be fighting, [Hank Lundy], Lundy pulled out, and he's fighting a bigger fight. He's fighting a title fight, right? Crawford, right. So that was our opponent, and that's who we were getting ready for, that's the style of sparring partners we brought on, and now we get a guy I haven't seen tape on yet. Now we're fighting a whole different guy. But that's what frustrates him. ... He was just being a little kid for a little bit. But that's what young guys do. He's still young."
On Pacquiao's camp
"Manny told me that he will be looking for a knockout this fight, that's the first time he's said that to me in, like, ten years. I like when he says stuff like that, that's right up my alley. That's what I want him to do in this fight. I don't care if Teddy Atlas is saying he's scared of fire or whatever story he has. This is not a storybook, this is a fight."
on Teddy Atlas: "We don't talk."
"A lot of guys I've had, are they good fighters before I get them? Yes. There's been a lot of champions that I've made, there's been a lot of champions that were champions before I got there. I've done well with fighters, and I've done well with bad attitudes, like Frankie. I get them on the right track. James Toney, Michael Moorer -- we've had a lot of experience with fighters. I've been with, like, 33 world champions, but believe me, I didn't make all those champions. A lot of those guys made me. I think the fighter makes the trainer, to be honest. During a fight, I sit down, they fight. Give them the credit."
On Pacquiao's lack of knockouts
"[Pacquiao's] not a big puncher at 147. That's a clear fact. At 140, he's a better puncher, at 135 he was an even better puncher. It's just the weight. He didn't carry the punch up to 147. Look at all his fights at 147, he only has, like, one or two knockouts. He's not a big puncher at that weight division, and he never will be."
"He's never really realized it until I told him last fight, just go out there and box, you're not a big puncher. But when you hurt somebody, you are supposed to jump on them, and that part of the game I know he can still do. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. I don't think that's a good idea. If you have a chance to knock somebody out, you shouldn't let the fight last longer than it should."
On Marquez-Cotto
"I don't think it's gonna happen. I think it would be a great fight, but Marquez would be a tune-up fight, and there's just no time for a tune-up fight at that weight. So we are looking to fight maybe a little later this year, but there's no opponent yet, and Gaby has given me a couple names, and I've said yes to a couple and no to a couple. I said no to Amir Khan actually. At this point, I don't think we want to fight a guy who's gonna run and try to make us look bad. Miguel coming off a close loss in his last fight, I think we need to be impressive to keep the crowd on our side."