Arthur Conan Doyle - Red Adair - Daley Thompson - Sugar Ray Leonard - Sergei Bubka - Floyd Mayweather junior - Mickey Rourke - The Amateur Armstrongs 2013 -
You live in a different world to me, Mr Overton, a sweeter and a healthier one. My ramifications stretch out into many sections of society, but never, I am happy to say, into amateur sport, which is the best and soundest thing in England. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 1905
If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. Red Adair
I wouldn’t swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country. Daley Thompson
Before the start of the ’76 Olympics, I’d had 160 amateur fights. I won 155 and lost five. Sugar Ray Leonard
Even now I want to keep my amateur spirit, to spend my time, to be in the sport with all my heart. Sergei Bubka
I think I already proved that I wasn’t just fighting for the money, because I fought as an amateur. I fought 90 fights for free. Floyd Mayweather junior
I grew up in a gym in Miami, the one where Muhammad Ali trained. I had 142 amateur fights and lost three. Mickey Rourke
The Netherlands is at the centre of international doping trade and prosecutors aren’t doing anything about it. Lance Armstrong shocked the world but the problem may reach further than you realise. In the Netherlands alone there are 160,000 users. The Amateur Armstrongs, Journeyman TV 2013
It’s unclear exactly how many doping laboratories there are in the Netherlands. ibid.