Muhammad Ali meant everything to me. He inspired me to box after watching re-runs of him winning a gold medal in the Olympics and being a world champion. – Nicola Adams
Boxing is like chess. You encourage your opponent to make mistakes so you can capitalise on it. People think you get in the ring and see the red mist, but it’s not about aggression. Avoiding getting knocked out is tactical. – Nicola Adams
Anger is an unnecessary emotion. Loads of stuff in life can trigger it, but what matters is how you react. I choose not to react. – Nicola Adams
In places like the U.S. and Germany, women’s professional boxing is already quite big, but I’d like to be the name that makes it bigger and gives it more global appeal. – Nicola Adams
Everybody wants that spot: everybody wants to beat Nicola Adams. Everybody wants to be the Olympic champion; everybody wants to beat the Olympic champion. It’s made me train that much harder and stay that much more focused. I guess, in a way, I’ve got them to thank for keeping me motivated and focused on the job I need to do. – Nicola Adams
My mum did really well raising me and my brother by herself. I know it was a struggle, and even from a young age, when I was boxing, it was always to make my mother proud. – Nicola Adams
I want to be the European, Olympic, Commonwealth and world champion. I want the full set. – Nicola Adams
When The Queen invited the Olympians to the Palace, I was first in line to speak to her. She said she watched the Games and how happy she was, how impressed she was with the boxing. She told me she’d watched my fight and enjoyed it. I didn’t realise the effect I’d had on the whole country. – Nicola Adams
When I was young, I used to watch videos of Ali boxing, with my dad. It set me on the road. I wanted to be like Ali. I wanted to have my own Nicki shuffle and everything. – Nicola Adams
To finally become world champion after losing out in three previous finals is very satisfying. It shows that if you stick to your goals and work hard, you can achieve them in the end. – Nicola Adams
Every time I get in the ring, I have to give 110 per cent because my opponents have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I have to make sure I go in there with my A-game and come away with the victory. – Nicola Adams
Spiders keep me awake at night. If I see one that’s too big to get under a glass, there will be big problems. I’ll spend the rest of the day feeling like I’m being terrorised by this missing spider. – Nicola Adams
I think the more people that feel comfortable in their own skin and feel happy that they can come out and know that it’s not going to affect their job or moving up in their career is the way forward. Just making people feel happy and comfortable in their own job and in their sport. – Nicola Adams
Women boxers prefer to focus on the win rather than the bravado. We’ve come a long way. In the ’90s, you only ever saw women parading in heels and a bikini holding a scorecard. Now we’re owning it; we should get some male models in Speedos to do the ring walk. – Nicola Adams
I went into boxing, and I’m bisexual, and I still achieved and performed at the highest level, and I came away with gold and made history, so with that said, anything is possible. – Nicola Adams
You can have someone younger, faster, but if you have got that experience and that ring craft, you can do anything in that ring. – Nicola Adams
It isn’t just sports people that need someone to look up to – everyone needs that: LGBT people, the general public. To be honest, it’s nice to feel that I can inspire so many people in so many areas of public life. – Nicola Adams
A couple of weeks after the Olympics, I thought I’d pop down to my local supermarket and do some grocery shopping. One person came up to me in the frozen food aisle, and that was it. I was mobbed, and I had to leave my shopping. Now, I either shop online or go very late at night when the supermarket’s nearly empty. – Nicola Adams
No one’s ever really cared about me being bisexual, and I only came out because I had always been out; it’s just the general public didn’t know. I’m quite fearless. I’m like, ‘Let’s just go out there and do this and see what happens.’ – Nicola Adams
I wouldn’t call myself a feminist. I am just me. I like boxing and acting and doing my charity work. – Nicola Adams
My family and friends are the only people I pay mind to. It’s none of my business what anyone else thinks. I don’t even know them, so why should I care? – Nicola Adams
When I look back, I only do so to see what I’ve done in my past – my gold medals and the Championships that I’ve won. Really, I just look to the future and hopefully winning even more. – Nicola Adams
I only went into a gym by accident. My mum couldn’t get a babysitter and wanted to do aerobics, so she took me and Kurtis, my younger brother, down to the gym. There was an after-school boxing class on with some of the kids from school. There weren’t any other girls there, but I didn’t mind. I loved it. – Nicola Adams
