I`ve said for years, ... that my biggest heroes are school teachers. A good school teacher is like another parent.

I`ve learned to not take media criticism personally, ... Seven or eight years ago, I would have said `I hate the media; there are people in it who are always bashing me.` Now I understand that, when someone writes something negative about me, it`s part of the game. Media criticism will destroy you if you take it personally, so now I play with it. I stay away from politics. Some people criticize me for that, but it`s a choice I`ve made. I have my views, but politics can be very sensitive. I`ve struggled so hard to get fans and people behind me for what I want to accomplish that it would be a mistake to support one party publicly and have the other party against me.

Once, I was at a party, ... This was at a time when it seemed like I had everything. I was young. I was undefeated. I had money. I`d just moved into my own home. People at the party were laughing and having fun. And I missed my mother. I felt so lonely. I remember asking myself, `Why isn`t my mother here? Why are all these people around me? I don`t want these people around me.` I looked out the window and started crying.

I was seventeen when my mother passed away, ... I was heartbroken. Nothing mattered to me anymore. I thought seriously about not finishing high school, even of dropping out of boxing. Not one day passes that I don`t think about my mother. And to be honest, there are still times when it`s a lonely world without her. But I feel that I was blessed to have her in my life, and I believe she`s still looking out for me.

The community work is central to who I am, ... I want to get across the idea in the community that all children have some golden boy or golden girl in them.

But people get these crazy ideas, ... I went on my own roller-coaster ride to gain acceptance from Mexican-American fight fans. It was very difficult and frustrating. There were times when I felt like shouting, `I can be your hero too.` And there were times, like my fights against Ike Quartey and even against Fernando Vargas, when I fought more aggressively and took more risks than I should have to please those fans.

I would have loved to have met Elvis Presley, ... He was the King. It`s very interesting to me; the way he grew up, the demons he battled, how he handled the pressure and how, after a while, it became a burden he couldn`t carry.

Whatever comes next for me, as far as boxing is concerned, I have no regrets. I would never change what I`ve accomplished and the history I`ve made.

One of the things that bothers me most, ... is that very few people really understand what it means to be a fighter. I hate it when I hear someone say, `That fighter doesn`t have guts.` I hate that; it really ticks me off. I don`t care if you`re a world champion six times over or a four-round fighter who just got knocked out in thirty seconds of your first professional fight. To step inside that ring, you have to have guts.

I`ve grown up, ... I`m less naive than before. I stopped the party scene a long time ago and started spending more time with family and real friends. I`m not perfect. Sometimes, I think about what I would say if I could talk to my mother again. First, I`d get off my chest the mistakes and bad decisions I`ve made. I`m married now with a wonderful wife. We`re expecting a baby boy in December. I`m doing LaMaze classes and experiencing morning sickness with her. As a father, I`m going to be there every day I possibly can. But I had two children out-of-wedlock, not with my wife, before I was married. They`re beautiful children; I adore them. But I grew up with a solid family, and Jacob and Atiana [ages 7 and 6] are entitled to that too. I try to be a good father to them, but it`s not the same and there were other times when my head was turned by fame and fortune. Maybe the best way to say it is that I`ve made mistakes in my life, but they were innocent mistakes and I`ve grown from them.