Champion Quotes

1. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”

2. “Vision gets the dreams started. Dreaming employs your God-given imagination to reinforce the vision. Both are part of something I believe is absolutely necessary to building the life of a champion, a winner, a person of high character who is consistently at the top of whatever game he or she is in.”

3. “Champions are not the ones who always win races - champions are the ones who get out there and try. And try harder the next time. And even harder the next time. 'Champion' is a state of mind. They are devoted. They compete to best themselves as much if not more than they compete to best others. Champions are not just athletes.”

4. “A true champion is a true champion. They go fight and win or lose, give it their all.”

5. “A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.”

6. “What does it take to be a champion? Desire, dedication, determination, concentration and the will to win.”

7. “Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.”

8. “Never stop, never give up, never stop giving yourself the self-confidence you need to be a champion.”

9. “I don't believe a champion is the biggest, baddest, meanest dude in the world. I think the champion is like a warrior; it's like the head knight or lead samurai: humble men of integrity, respect, and honor that treat people kindly.”

10. “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”

11. “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens.”

12. “Please don't call me arrogant, but I'm European champion and I think I'm a special one.”

13. “A true champion can adapt to anything.”

14. “Once a champion, always a champion.”

15. “Grit, determination, the right amount of crazy, self belief - everything it takes to be a champion. I have that.”

16. “Anyone can train to be a gladiator. What marks you out is having the mindset of a champion.”

17. “I wasn't born to be champion - I fought to be champion.”

18. “We all have a responsibility to try and make this world better, whether it's through our work, the causes we champion, the way that we treat people, or the values we impart to the next generation.”

19. “We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.”

20. “There's a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.”

21. “To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge.”

22. “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.”

23. “You become a champion by fighting one more round. When things are tough, you fight one more round.”

24. “In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best.”

25. “All pieces of the puzzle need to fall in the right place to be a champion team.”

26. “For me, I'm focused on what I want to do. I know what I need to do to be a champion, so I'm working on it.”

27. “No excuses. Play like a champion.”

28. “Every champion was once a challenger.”

29. “The target for every great champion is to play for the team.”

30. “You can win all the tournaments you want, but the majors are what you're remembered for. It's how you're measured as a champion in our sport. The majors are where it's at.”

31. “To be a tennis champion, you have to be inflexible. You have to be stubborn. You have to be arrogant. You have to be selfish and self-absorbed. Kind of tunnel vision almost.”

32. “My dream is to be World Lightweight Champion in the UFC. Have more money than I know what to do with. And have a great life for my kids, grandkids, and everyone in my family.”

33. “A true champion is one who sweats from exhaustion when no one is watching.”

34. “Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony.”

35. “There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.”

36. “To be a champion, you have to learn to handle stress and pressure. But if you've prepared mentally and physically, you don't have to worry.”

37. “Balance provides the chance for longevity. You can be a champion at work and at home.”

38. “To be champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well.”

39. “To be a champion you must act like one, act like a champion.”

40. “I was an All-American in wrestling in high school, was National Champion in Chinese kickboxing in 1999 and have spent a lot of time around professional athletes, which includes my eight-plus years as CEO of a sports nutrition company.”

41. “People treat you one way when you're champion, but when you're not the champion, everything changes. People treat you different.”

42. “A champion without his belt is like a knight without his sword. I've got to have it.”

43. “I'm a gypsy: no education, no schooling, nothing. I don't care what people think of me. I don't care about being a hero, a role model, a champion.”

44. “This is what champions do: champions defend. They always say you're not a champion until you defend your title.”

45. “My mom has always been my champion. She was very smart and grounded. She said, 'Save your money. Pay your taxes. Don't put everything in one basket,' but she let me explore and be creative.”

46. “Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”

47. “Craig Sager's amazing attitude was truly inspirational. He was a champion during his battle, fighting every day with grace and humor.”

48. “Goliath was a champion, a monster who had never been beaten, and then this young guy, David, came forward, a child who believed in God and did it.”

49. “A rematch is one of those things that will always be there when you remove a champion, and it's something you definitely need to give them - that chance for a rematch. That's the only way to do it.”

50. “So, I didn't say we are going to win a lot, but we are going to play like winners, and we've got a plan in place to teach our guys how to play like winners and play like a champion.”

51. “Only one champion stands at the end of the year, so just making the playoffs isn't enough.”

52. “I came to the UFC to fight with top-level fighters and become the undisputed, undefeated champion. This is my goal.”

53. “When you watch 'UFC,' there is not a cliche champion who looks the same every time.”

54. “I googled 'Gabby Douglas,' and all these things popped up like 'Gabby Douglas makes history!' And 'She's the champion!'”

55. “Modesty should be typical of the success of a champion.”

56. “I need to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. As soon as I become, I will turn back and say, 'Guys, thank you very much for your participation. Thanks everyone.' I will thank the Lord, I will go to the ground and say farewell, and I will go home.”

57. “In order to be the champion, you've got to play the best, you've got to beat the best.”

58. “I believe I have the attitude of a champion and a winner, and I'm not apologetic for it.”

59. “I would change all my individual trophies for that trophy of World Cup champion.”

60. “I think of Bret Hart as somebody who held the Intercontinental championship like it was the World Heavyweight championship. Every title match he was in felt important, like it was the most important thing on the show. The way he carried himself and the matches he had, it was just everything I thought a champion should be.”

61. “One of the things that first attracted me to chess is that it brings you into contact with intelligent, civilized people - men of the stature of Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, who was my part-time coach.”

62. “The UFC needs a champion like me.”

63. “I'm damn successful but I got here by not taking crap. I still don't take crap, so if anybody needs a champion, let it be me.”

64. “The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.”

65. “In boxing, Mike Tyson fascinates me. The attitude and confidence that he could not be beaten when he was heavyweight champion of the world was interesting. He came across as very mild-mannered, and much of what he said made sense.”

66. “I've been knocked down more than any heavyweight champion in history.”

67. “I'm the champion, and to stay ahead, I have to work harder.”

68. “I went to see President Nixon at the White House. It wasn't difficult to get a meeting because I was heavyweight champion of the world. So I came to Washington and walked around the garden with Nixon, his wife and daughter. I said: I want you to give Ali his licence back. I want to beat him up for you.”

69. “At a certain point, when I let go and was done - when I stopped and could say I was blessed and thankful to be a champion, when I finally enjoyed life from this different perspective - that's when I healed. Letting go healed me.”

70. “In terms of playing ability there is nothing to choose between number one and 100. Instead, it's a question of who believes and who wants it more? Which player is mentally stronger? Which player is going to fight the hardest in the big points? These are the things that determine who is the champion.”

71. “Sometimes a great champion has to lead by example.”

72. “I do Thai boxing Mondays, jujitsu Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Wednesdays I do boxing with Mark - he was a world champion at one point. I absolutely love it. I actually have a punching bag outside in my garden. I'm obsessed with working out. I eat like a pig, so it kind of makes up for that.”

73. “A true champion will fight through anything.”

74. “As six-time world karate champion and then a movie star, I put too much trust in who I was, what I could do, and what I acquired. I forgot how much I needed others and especially God.”

75. “The 1982 Asian Games champion M.D. Valsamma's coach gave a statement in the media that if Valsamma had some 15 days training on a synthetic track, she would beat me. I was very interested in the challenge. I kept that paper cutting under my bed and used to read it often.”

76. “I was brought into the life of one Bas Rutten in 2001 at a grappling tournament that I was attending to support a friend of mine. I had never met Bas before but, of course, knew who he was: the King of Pancrase, UFC Heavyweight champion, and the commentator with Pride.”

77. “I want to become the champion and hold that belt. I don't want to just win a fight and then lose it in my next fight.”

78. “I truly believe that it's all of the hard times that make you step up to the next level, and that's what makes you a champion.”

79. “We've had a debate about immigration in New Zealand for some time. Now what we're trying to champion in that conversation is a recognition that New Zealand has been built off immigration. I myself am a third-generation New Zealander.”

80. “Research confirms that both Republican and Democratic women are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate and fight for bills that champion social justice, protect the environment, advocate for families, and promote nonviolent conflict resolution.”

81. “You can be an underdog, but you can beat the champion.”

82. “That was the fight. I knew that I had done something that no man had been able to do to a champion.”

83. “I was born to be champion of the world.”

84. “I want to be Champion, and I want to cut amazing promos.”

85. “What it is saying is that someone who was a world champion and who takes care of himself with a 17-year rest and applies the proper training techniques and perseverance could be successful.”

86. “There are a lot of big personalities in our family, and because of the way that we interact with each other - and the fact that the girls are beautiful, the little ones are adorable, and my husband is an Olympic champion - there was this perfect storm, where I think you kind of wanted to watch and go, 'Wow, what's happening with this family?'”

87. “I think as a Canadian hockey player, you go through it in your mind so many times, being able to stand on that blue line and hear your national anthem play and being a gold medal champion, you dream of that. And then to be able to accomplish that and actually win a gold medal and represent your country its an amazing feeling.”

88. “A champion's thirst for titles should be insatiable.”

89. “All the champions - you go and ask Mike Tyson or Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Lennox Lewis and myself included, and I'm sorry for putting myself in line with all the other great names - but the champion's attitude is it doesn't matter who is in front of me, I am going to conquer this person and win the fight and knock the person out.”

90. “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.”

91. “When I was Cedrick Von Haussen, the champion of Liechtenstein, I was only 18 years old. I was super, duper young. I started traveling around for wrestling when I was 16, so I had only been wrestling a few years at that point.”

92. “You talk about Shaq, I would put Tim Duncan in that same category. Mr. Fundamental, just kept things simple. He is a great teammate, a great player, and a great person. When you have those ingredients in a champion, you just want to be a part of that and have an opportunity to play with him.”

93. “I had a goal to become the undisputed champion in cruiserweight, and I achieved this goal.”

94. “If you lose, no one will remember you, but if you're the champion, they will always remember you.”

95. “I would like it to be remembered; I would love to be World Champion one day and have my name on the list. That is the real dream - although I am sure it is the dream for pretty much all the Formula 1 drivers.”

96. “The thing that I champion is sustainability. My terror is that suddenly we see it as a luxury, not an essential. That's a danger.”

97. “When you become a world champion and you defend your title for five or six years, and you have fifteen defences of your title, and you round up most of the other belts - and you feel you're the best of your generation at the time - nobody can take that away from you.”

98. “There is nothing we cannot do for an athlete. If a guy wants to write a book, great. If he wants to be a 'Fortnite' champion, great. If he wants to act, great. He wants to buy a surfboard company? Fantastic. There is nothing we cannot do for the modern athlete.”

99. “The world is starving for new ideas and great leaders who will champion those ideas.”

100. “I'm not like a champion of profanity. I write what I hear, and the characters that I write, that's how they talk. That's how I talk a lot of the time. So I'm not trying to advance a social cause.”

101. “All these nice people saying I'm going to be world champion won't make me any faster, you have to believe it yourself.”

102. “I don't want to be like any other boxer. My goal is to be a champion in my own style.”

103. “I was born a fighter, I'll be a fighter, and I'm a champion and I know I'm a champion already.”

104. “It's definitely a motivational factor, becoming a three-organization world champion.”

105. “You know what a champion is? A champion is someone who's ready when the gong rings - not just before, not just after - but when it rings.”

106. “What motivated me to dedicate myself to public service for nearly two-thirds of my life was the chance to produce results for those people who entrusted me to be their voice and their champion.”

107. “Joe Frazier was the epitome of a champion. I mean, here is a guy who was total old school, blue collar, who would fight anybody. You know, he didn't tell you he was the best fighter pound for pound.”

108. “Being world's champion is what I set out in life to do. I'm one of the few people on earth that can say they completed, in every aspect, what they wanted to do with their life.”

109. “Boxing is a dying sport, really. Years ago, the world heavyweight champion could be said to have reached the highest pinnacle of sport. Even in this country, boxers were heroes. Think of Henry Cooper and Frank Bruno.”

110. “A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.”

111. “McGregor was never a champion of anything. He defeated the champion and left.”

112. “I want to go down as a champion who redeemed himself, made up for letting everyone down and regained his self-respect.”

113. “I feel like it's harder because everyone knows I'm the three-time world champion - it's almost like people are waiting for something bad to happen.”

114. “Being champion is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown.”

115. “I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.”

116. “My mother is a fighter. After she battled polio and learned to walk again, the doctors told her she would be a cripple her entire life. Instead of accepting defeat, she refused this fate and went on to become the West African Women's Singles tennis champion in college.”

117. “Any time you get to play a champion like Serena, it's amazing.”

118. “It's amazing because people come up to me and say, 'Chuck, you're the luckiest guy in the world to be a world karate champion and a movie and TV star.' When they say this to me, I kind of smile because luck had nothing to do with it; God had everything to do with it.”

119. “No one expected me to become a champion.”

120. “Working-class Americans want a clear champion, and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.”

121. “One and done, Home Run Derby champion. It was a cool experience. I enjoyed it all, but I don't think I really need to go out there and do it again.”

122. “If you put a person in a training gym made out of entire gold, it doesn't guarantee that this person will become a champion. But if you put a person in the basement, then there is a high chance that he will get out of this basement as a champion.”

123. “Yes, I have done many roles with negative shades, such as 'Awara Paagal Deewana' and 'Champion.' But in 'Ashoka,' I played a positive character.”

124. “Upon awakening in the morning, I wondered if the proceedings of the night before had been a dream. It was hard to believe that I was the world's heavyweight champion.”

125. “What could be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're the heavyweight champion of the world?”

126. “I have nothing but respect for John Cena and his work rate. He's one of the hardest-working wrestlers there ever was. He's been a great champion, an inspiring role model. It's not easy being John Cena and carrying all the weight of the company on your back all the time.”

127. “I dream of getting to the belt. I know I'm gonna get there. I'm gonna be the champion.”

128. “You know, in football - this isn't basketball. One draft pick isn't going to make us a Super Bowl champion. It might be a big start to a Super Bowl championship, but it's always going to be about the team.”

129. “Be very strong… be very methodical in your life if you want to be a champion.”

130. “Marciano was an idol in a simpler era, when professional athletes were heroes and sportswriters were complicit in building legends rather than exposing them. To the public, all that really mattered was that Rocky had 49 wins in 49 fights and retired in 1956 as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world.”

131. “I was always the champion and will always be as long as I'm in the featherweight division.”

132. “There are 7 billion people in the world, but there's only one heavyweight champion of the world, and that's me.”

133. “The boys, they are laughing: 'Oh, you are boxing. Very funny.' But I always challenge when people are laughing - 'I'll show you one day.' After getting five times world champion, they are all quiet. And they respect me.”

134. “I am a well-spoken, educated person, and I'm also an extremely accomplished athlete. For me, it's disrespect and a slap in the face when people say I broke a mold as champion or I don't fit as champion.”

135. “I want to be more than the heavyweight champion. I want to do great things.”

136. “If I'm the champion, the whole UFC division should be ashamed of themselves for a guy that had no damn skills being the champion. They should all just go relocate somewhere.”

137. “I want to take this time to thank Daniel Cormier for being my biggest rival and motivator. He has absolutely no reason to hang his head. He has been a model champion, a model husband, a model father, a teammate, a leader, and I aspire to be a lot more like that man, because he's an amazing human being.”

138. “We'd always said boxers shouldn't lift weights. Now I realize some champion boxer started that rumor. I noticed if I did weights a couple of times a week, I would be able to hit that jab a lot longer. After sparring, everybody's gone, and I sneak into the weight room. Spend 40 minutes in there lifting weights.”

139. “If the civil society is not transparent, honest, and accountable, then you cannot be a champion of social justice.”

140. “The Labour party is the greatest champion of equality and opportunity this country has even known.”

141. “Being the U.S. champion is a big deal for me. Knowing that my ancestors built this country, it's kind of like, the Irish were treated badly in this country for a long time, with a lot of tacky Irish stereotypes, so to me, it's kind of like a bragging right.”

142. “The goal for me has always to be a champion. Whether it's me and Mox as a tag team, the TNT championship, or the big one, the grandaddy of them all - the goal has always been to be the top man.”

143. “I didn't start out planning to be Mr. Olympia I just wanted to be the best that I could be, but my goals changed as I went along. I wanted to be the British champion, and then I wanted to be a pro, then Mr. Olympia.”

144. “The respect for the rights of minorities that China's Tibetan and Uighur activists champion would prevent instability that could spill across China's borders.”

145. “From Captain Britain's point of view we live in a great, heavily populated omniverse and our reality is just one part of that. In each of the parallel worlds there is a lighthouse on every shore of every England where the champion has his base.”

146. “The heavyweight championship of the world was the most coveted title in sports. Everyone knew who the heavyweight champion was. And not only when it was Muhammad Ali or Rocky Marciano: they knew when it was Ingemar Johansson.”

147. “It is very good to be Olympic champion, but that is not the strongest field.”

148. “Now people all across America are starting to believe in America again. We are coming back, back to the heights of greatness, back to America's proud role as a temple of justice and a champion of peace.”

149. “Boxing is a sport, but it's also entertainment. I wanted to transcend the sport and be considered just not as a fighter, or a champion, but someone very special.”

150. “My ambition is to one day be in Formula 1 and hopefully become world champion.”

151. “I never fought for money. I had a good career and legacy as featherweight champion.”

152. “There never was a happier or more devoted husband than the male bluebird. He is the gay champion and escort of the female at all times, and while she is sitting, he feeds her regularly.”

153. “There's no better way to start a year than to become the first-ever three-time ROH World Champion.”

154. “I dislike the fact that we no longer have a Tour Champion.”

155. “You got to be a champion on the inside.”

156. “Everybody fights for money, of course, but I wanted to leave a legacy when I retired, get my name in the history. I don't think like that anymore. When I lost the belt, I saw how reality is. Champion means nothing.”

157. “Once you're a NASCAR champion, you're kind of in another elite division instead of just being a competitor or a race winner.”

158. “A dual-sport champion, man. That's unheard of and pretty impressive, man.”

159. “To my mind ClickThings, and John Underwood are world champion caliber, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to partner with them.”

160. “I told my mother I was going to become a world champion and buy her a home.”

161. “When I auditioned for 'Bye Bye Birdie' on Broadway, Gower Champion said, 'You've got the job!' I said, 'Mr. Champion, I can't dance.' He said, 'We'll teach you what you need to know.'”

162. “I had some friends who were great skiers who I would hang out with, like Jonny Moseley, the Olympic moguls champion, who tried to date my sister once.”

163. “It is time to stand strong for the American people. It is time to champion the interests of those constantly neglected on the question of immigration: the men and women and children we represent - the citizens of this country to whom we owe our ultimate allegiance.”

164. “Canelo, he is not a champion. He is a liar who has no respect for the sport of boxing or its fans.”

165. “My mother was this force of nature when it came to both communication with people and the whole of learning music. She's a champion.”

166. “As long as I fight for myself, I will stay champion.”

167. “I would like to cite an instance which proves the efficacy of clean living on the part of an athlete coupled with the inspiration received from a champion which go a long way to making a champion.”

168. “I am now the Wimbledon champion, and I think that gives me even more confidence coming to the Olympics. And maybe in some ways, it maybe takes some pressure off the Olympics, because I already did win at Wimbledon this year.”

169. “My father was an army champion boxer… in the British army. And so he loved boxing and talked it up as a sport. But then when my brother and I were beating the crap out of each other, he was always trying to tone it down. But I am a fan of boxing.”

170. “The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.”

171. “That was my biggest dream, to one day become champion in MMA and boxing. That is my biggest dream.”

172. “I want to be world champion, and that's why I've worked for an entire lifetime to get here.”

173. “There are a lot of benefits that come with being an Open champion but I'll just try and be the same old Shane Lowry that I've always been.”

174. “For me, I believe George Foreman was a bad example because when he became world heavyweight champion again at 42, that made a lot of fighters think they could also carry on.”

175. “Who would have ever thought that, within a couple months of getting into the WWE, that I'd be wrestling in the main event for the world championship? Then, nine months after getting here, actually being the world champion.”

176. “A champion doesn't choose opponents or where the fight is going to be.”

177. “Nick Aldis is a great champion. He looks like a professional athlete. He dresses like one. He carries it well.”

178. “I feel as if I'm God's champion, and I have a lot of pride in that.”

179. “I didn't aspire to be a good sport; 'champion' was good enough for me.”

180. “When I see Big E, I clearly see someone who could be world champion. The guy is on another level.”

181. “To have real success and roots in a society, there has to be a local champion, and hence we believe in identifying a local entrepreneur.”

182. “I dream of being champion and dream going out as champion. That's my biggest motivation.”

183. “My old dance teacher, Jimmy Wilde, a former European ballroom dancing champion, was so sophisticated.”

184. “I wanted to be a world champion.”

185. “I played against men most of my life because our goal was that I wanted to reach the highest potential to be an absolute world champion.”

186. “People can be giving me my flowers all day and telling me how great I am and at some point, I'm gonna go, 'You know you're nuts,' or tell them that I'm not the world champion or TNT Champion or tag-team champion, you know that, right? I'm not as over as you think I am.”

187. “There's people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That's not the sign of a champion.”

188. “Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on.”

189. “My goal and path is always to get to the mountaintop and be a world champion, and leave a fighting legacy.”

190. “Ever since I was a child I always wanted to be WWE Champion. I've been in love with sports-entertainment for my entire life, and I always wanted to do that.”

191. “I'm happy that Holloway is the champion. An example, someone who deserved being where he is.”

192. “Every champion golfer comes to Augusta imbued with a towering source of inspiration. It's a solitary journey, but it's one that no player… makes alone.”

193. “Carry yourself like a champion now so when you get there, it's not a surprise.”

194. “I wouldn't say that there's ever been an Olympic champion that didn't deserve to win an Olympic Gold Medal.”

195. “Not just me but everybody in the WEC was dreaming of fighting in the UFC and become a champ. Thank God I went there and became a champion. I root for the WEC guys. I do.”

196. “My dad was a three-time world heavyweight champion, so I want to be a three-time world heavyweight champion.”

197. “My friend Patsy Mink was a champion for social and economic justice, equality and civil rights for women and marginalized communities. She was a trailblazer who never backed down from a challenge and whose work in Hawaii and Congress brought positive change to the lives of women, children, and minorities in Hawaii and across the country.”

198. “Yes, I think about having a career in boxing, but I want to start from the bottom, start from zero. I want to get ranked and one day fight for a belt. I don't want to fight just to fight, for money, to go after big fights and challenge a great champion.”

199. “Amin was the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda and could be a tough opponent.”

200. “No matter what happens, I will always be the champion.”

201. “I champion the idea of being more conscious. I call it being an active architect of your own life. Building your life like an architect builds a structure.”

202. “Being champion, there's a different mindset.”

203. “I'm the champion for a reason.”

204. “I actually study boxing - my dad was a Golden Gloves champion so I learned how to fight at a very young age. Growing up in Brooklyn you always had to watch your back, so I pretty much learned to protect myself.”

205. “What I want is to leave this sport as champion. I want to be the only featherweight champion. That's when I'll leave the sport.”

206. “I'm the nap champion.”

207. “My goal in boxing was to be Southern Area champion, might have a shot at the British, might own my own terraced house like my dad. That was my vision.”

208. “Each great athlete must some day bow to that perennial old champion, Father Time, even as I, for Time eventually wins.”

209. “It was priceless. Being the UFC champion and having my kids in the Octagon, my wife, them holding the belt. That was like a movie.”

210. “My objective since I started my career was: become the champion, remain the champion, retire the champion.”

211. “The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.”

212. “You have to bear in mind that Mr. Autry's favorite horse was named Champion. He ain't ever had one called Runner Up.”

213. “The Games were created for the glorification of the individual champion.”

214. “I want to be a champion for the people I have fought for all my life - regular people.”

215. “If you're a champion, you have to have it in your heart.”

216. “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time to honor the greatest champion of racial equality who taught a nation - through compassion and courage - about democracy, nonviolence and racial justice.”

217. “What happened in the past is just that, the past. Champion or not.”

218. “I would have been a much more popular Wolrd Champion if I had always said what people wanted to hear. I might have been dead, but definitely more popular.”

219. “Hopefully I can become the Babe Ruth of the World Wrestling Federation and be the champion at the same time.”

220. “I had never, ever drunk beer in high school, and by the time I got to Tech we were having these parties out in the cotton fields and getting so drunk. I was the champion beer drinker; suddenly I was pouring it down my throat… Insane! Insane!”

221. “My goal is to be the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.”

222. “I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion.”

223. “But go on, valiant champion; you die not as a fool, though the apostate, unfaithful, and lukewarm ministers and professors of this generation think and say so.”

224. “Realizing full well that fine condition and confidence will not in themselves make a champion, it is my belief, however, that they are essential factors.”

225. “The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.”

226. “Ali and I have become friends over the years. I was on a plane with him one time when he was the champion.”

227. “As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport.”

228. “As a child I was very involved with sports and I knew at age 9 that I wanted to be an Olympic champion.”

229. “Al Gore seems to have found a great political ploy: Picking up whatever issue he is most vulnerable on and championing the cause. Perhaps he will start to champion perjury statutes and obstruction of justice.”

230. “I would like to become champion, but I'm realistic about it.”

231. “Do you have any ambitions outside racing? My main ambition at the moment, whether inside or outside racing, is to become Formula 1 World Champion.”

232. “What I can tell them is the way you become an Olympic champion is to start working now. I tell them why it's always worth it to put the time and effort into something you want to be good at.”

233. “I don't want to be remembered as a beaten champion.”

234. “People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me.”

235. “The situation right after the fight wasn't too good; I believe I'm still the only champion in the world who never received the belt inside the ring once you've won the title. I held that against the English fans for a long time but I felt that also motivated me.”

236. “Take the feeling of hunger out of your gut, and you're no longer a champion.”

237. “First of all I thought it was ugly, I thought it was ridiculous that undercover police guys would drive a striped tomato and I've never been a big champion of Ford.”

238. “My father was champion of North Africa and he beat the European champ. He was very good, a professional for 12 years. We're from a big family of boxers. My father has seven brothers.”

239. “It's good that the first half of the speech emphasized freedom, because George W. Bush has been the global champion for freedom. As he said, if we don't fight tyranny it will not leave us alone in peace.”

240. “I trained and trained and went up against Kurt, then being a world champion in '94, and after that I did Tommy's tour and then my tour and all this stuff and just trying to deal with it all. And now, I've just kind of backed off a little.”

241. “We need strong personalities and only one world champion to attract sponsors.”

242. “I don't want ever to be champion again.”

243. “I think that the World Champion should try to defend the quality of play more than anyone else.”

244. “In my country, at that time, being a champion of chess was like being a King. At that time I was a King - and when you are King you feel a lot of responsibility, but there is nobody there to help you.”

245. “Recently I saw Kasparov and he looked to me as still young and potent champion.”

246. “I think a good MP is someone who cares for their community and becomes their champion, which is why I will make my home in any seat I am lucky enough to be selected for. Looks play no part in the equation, what matters is your ideas and connecting them to the electorate.”

247. “I have no great urge to be minister of this or minister of that, but instead would feel incredible blessed to have the opportunity to be a champion for a constituency and fight for their cause.”

248. “What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well.”

249. “I don't champion the idea of being in a Hollywood movie. I never had fun in one of them.”

250. “They're cheering a young lad, the champion playboy of the Western World.”

251. “The Internal Revenue Service is the real undefeated heavyweight champion.”

252. “A champion owes everybody something. He can never pay back for all the help he got, for making him an idol.”

253. “Because I was a champion swimmer in Canada, they're always trying to get me in the water in movies! I've drawn the line now with this film. No more water!”

254. “I want to thank America. You opened your heart so I could enter. Thank you everybody who lives in the United States, who saw me grow into becoming a world champion.”

255. “I've been proud to be national champion. I've really enjoyed it. I have very little opportunity to remind people that I'm British and it's a nice way of staying in touch. I'm going to defend it fiercely. I want to keep it.”

256. “But research confirms that both Republican and Democratic women are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate and fight for bills that champion social justice, protect the environment, advocate for families, and promote nonviolent conflict resolution.”

257. “Although I have to say, it's become a lot harder for me since I won the world series because everyone wants to beat me. For example, bluffing is really tough now, because there's always someone who calls me on the off-chance that they'll then be able to say they read a world champion's bluff.”

258. “It was a dream of mine to be an Olympic champion but not a lifelong goal.”

259. “I am confident that you brothers in parliament will champion the will of the people over that of the occupier.”

260. “I can't even imagine what it's like and right now I'm like in shock, I can't believe that I'm Olympic Champion.”

261. “My cousin Simon Bor, the champion of Los Angeles, convinced me to concentrate on running.”

262. “I've been training super hard at the Lopez Taekwondo Academy in Houston, which belongs to my brother Jean. For me, I think confidence is the biggest thing; it's all mental. I train with the best of the best, including my brother Steven, a five-time world champion who won Olympic gold medals.”

263. “If I wasn't a champion, I'd still be in jail. That makes me try very hard.”

264. “My senior year of high school, when I was getting recruited for college, my dad goes to me, 'You can become an Olympic champion.' And that's the first time that I'd heard someone else say that to me. I was like, 'Uh, are you talking to me?'”

265. “I was World Series champion in individual and synchro for the first time which was awesome.”

266. “It means so much to be European champion again with a personal best and I couldn't have asked for anything more.”

267. “Finishing overall champion at the World Series in both the individual and synchro events has given me great confidence and I'm pleased I've been diving with consistency.”

268. “I'm proud of my triumphs. I've dreamed of being world champion, I've had some difficult times and they've made me value the good times.”

269. “Every week you have to play well to be the champion.”

270. “Only one guy can be world champion, and so if everyone else thought they were failures you'd have no one left on the grid.”

271. “People know I was the last true champion.”

272. “The mission I set out on in the beginning - to become heavyweight champion of the world, undisputed, lineal champion - you could say that mission is complete.”

273. “I still am champion in my own right.”

274. “I love short track. I competed in short track, I was a world champion in 1986 but at that point in time it wasn't in the Olympic Games so I moved into long track. Short track is a blast to skate and it's a blast to watch.”

275. “If you're the Olympic champion then they have to wait four more years to get you again.”

276. “This sweet, blessed, God-inspired place called America is a champion that has absorbed some blows. But while we bend, we don't break. This is no dark hour; this is the dawn before we remember who we are.”

277. “And fifth, we will champion small businesses, America's engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.”

278. “I've always been working just to be a world champion and it's a dream come true.”

279. “Rhetorically, President Obama is a champion of bipartisanship. In practice, though, he is almost always its enemy.”

280. “A perfect record does not mean that someone is the greatest. Rocky Marciano never lost a fight, but I never hear anyone say he's the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.”

281. “Whatever luck I had, I made. I was never a natural athlete, but I paid my dues in sweat and concentration and took the time necessary to learn karate and become world champion.”

282. “The Olympics is a special event and winning is very important. For me as a world record holder and world champion, the only thing I am missing is the Olympic gold medal and that is what I want to achieve in my career.”

283. “I was ready in 2008 for the Olympic Games but unfortunately I missed the Kenyan trials with a thigh injury. I watched those Olympics but it was tough to watch. But it was good in the end because a Kenyan, Wilfred Bungei, was the champion.”

284. “I was an optimist, a great champion of the human spirit. And I lost that for a time. I feel like I've regained a bit of that in the last few years but there was a period of my life in which I had a very low opinion of people in general.”

285. “I do protect human rights, and I hope I shall always be looked up as a champion of human rights.”

286. “When I was a boxer, I wanted to be champion of the world, not the richest man in the world.”

287. “I didn't have to win, and winning wasn't important to me. Being world champion wasn't important to me. What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.”

288. “I started a business with two guys I played with, Ronnie Lott and Harris Barton: Champion Ventures, it's a fund of funds. We have $400 million or so under management.”

289. “My biggest frustration with the Heisman is it's become the MVP of the national champion, or a team going to the National Championship game. That's what it's turned into. If you're not undefeated, you're out of the running.”

290. “Ofili is still a champion. It would be a huge mistake to think otherwise.”

291. “History serves as a model not only of who and what we are to be, we learn what to champion and what to avoid.”

292. “I will never be an insider. I want to be the champion of people who don't have insiders and lobbyists supporting them.”

293. “I'm not a wushu champion. I was an athlete when I was a kid. I was a swimmer and a runner, but all this action stuff is such a challenge. It really, really is.”

294. “My sensei was a British karate champion named Brian Fitkin. He was my mentor and because I had a hard relationship with my dad, he became a father figure to me.”

295. “We need to empower women. Give women a voice in the decision-making process. Give women a political voice where they can champion, for their own welfare. And, of course, for us. United Nations - organizations, agencies - we need to do our part.”

296. “The teachers' unions that block school reform have done serious damage to the union brand. The public no longer views unions as their friend, much less their champion. They view them as corrupt, intransigent and more interested in protecting their political clout within the Democratic Party than protecting their members or even school children.”

297. “Being a world champion is something I'm already proud of and can take for the rest of my life.”

298. “I always wanted to be Olympic champion and do clean programs.”

299. “Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.”

300. “You can be an Olympic champion in 9.5 secs, but to be the greatest, there's more to it. It takes a bit of forethought and a lot of mental application.”

301. “Fischer, the great American chess champion, famously said, 'Chess is life.' I would say, 'Pi is life.'”

302. “I've been thinking about disowning some of my genes lately. I have a few healthy, happy, long-living optimists in my family tree - most of them fans of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, a major champion of positive thinking. But I've got plenty of ancestors who played out more tortured hands.”

303. “My mother was a champion high-jumper. My three brothers are basketball players. We've all been very athletic.”

304. “So, I'm thinking of a name for a villain that has a sense of humor. I thought of 'The Joker' as a name, and as soon as I thought that, I associate it with the playing card, as my family had a tradition of champion playing; my brother was a contract champion bridge player. There were always cards around the house.”

305. “An American champion, obviously being here in the states, is something that we all look at with the U.S. Open. But golf is played all over the world, and there are so many great golfers from other countries, and we're lucky enough that this is our home base to be able to play out of.”

306. “Students today need experience to get a job, and they need a job to get experience. The Chegg Champion program provides students with a real-world working experience that actually offers financial rewards.”

307. “For me it was a normality having a father who was a world champion. I grew up with that, so it was never extra pressure. And I've never felt the need to emerge from his shadow.”

308. “It is a burden because I get asked about my father all the time. I just need to accept that he was a champion before me.”

309. “Creating emotion was what my career was all about. I wanted people to laugh at me; I wanted people to cry with me. I wanted people to feel good or to think about something when they watched me. I think that's why, even not being an Olympic champion, I have such a huge following around the world.”

310. “Michael Pollan is a champion. In all ways. A man of great integrity, humor, and common sense and kindness.”

311. “I'm not normally a jewelry person. I'm supposed to be a working class champion and all, and I don't like to rub my success in people's faces.”

312. “I want to be remembered as a great athlete. As a boxing champion.”

313. “I'm a big champion of people doing things outside the system.”

314. “I go where the revolution is, and the revolution is Ron Paul. Ron Paul is a champion of the Constitution. He's about getting rid of the Federal Reserve and shrinking federal government.”

315. “For your friends and family, you are always a champion, but for the media and sponsors, not until you show a spark. Making a champ is more important than celebrating one. I want to be there for youngsters and help them do their best.”

316. “I'm trying to champion the naturalist's worldview and show it's not as heathen as most religious people would make it out to be.”

317. “While journalists cannot right every wrong, champion every cause or fix every problem, they can - through the written word - lift someone's burden for a day, make some elderly woman on a bus smile or let them know they are noticed by someone.”

318. “I love talking to interesting people - people like O.J. Simpson, Andretti… I love champions. A champion has something special about him.”

319. “I didn't think I was so tough until I did 'Champion'; then I was a tough guy.”

320. “Mike Tyson is the most complex person I've ever met in my life. I've known Mike since 1986. We're both from Brooklyn. I didn't know him growing up, but once he became heavyweight champion, I knew him then.”

321. “My grandmother spoiled my father rotten, and he grew up expecting women to do whatever he wanted. When he married my beautiful mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a champion ballroom dancer and become a good wife and mother, which she dutifully did.”

322. “I've always been a champion of kids pursuing their dreams. But sometimes in life, extraordinary circumstances may force us to temporarily put our dreams on hold. The most important thing is to never lose sight of that dream, no matter what punches life may throw in our way.”

323. “The goal of higher education should be to champion the airing of all honest viewpoints. Nothing less is acceptable.”

324. “Here's why I cannot vote for Rudy Giuliani. He's pro-abortion. He's never repudiated gay marriage in New York City or at least the civil unions in New York City. He's called a champion of gay rights. Rudy is opposed to school choice. He's in favor of open borders.”

325. “I think I could have become an outstanding professional baseball player, but I don't think I could have reached the heights that I have in football - being one of the very top players in the game, being a world champion.”

326. “I was a world champion on the trampoline at an international level, and gymnastics competitor.”

327. “I remember taking my demo to every dance person in London. People were like, 'We don't know what this is!' The first people to champion me were a club in Manchester.”

328. “When we did 'The Office,' no one knew who we were, so it was easy to champion us; you could own us. Once you become successful, people don't have that any more, so it becomes more polarised. Some people want to champion you, and others want to slag you off. It doesn't concern me.”

329. “It's not my place to compare myself to greats like Tyson, Frazier or men like that. But I would look at a fighter like Evander Holyfield. He's a great heavyweight who worked his way up through the weight classes to become champion and had to beat bigger men along the way.”

330. “I'm playing right now a role, and the role is called the 'Heavyweight Champion of the World.' And it takes all of the time. And I love this role, and it takes a lot of attention for me for the sport, and I just don't want to lose the title, so that's why I have to stay focused and not become an actor.”

331. “Boxing should focus on pitting champion versus champion - those are the fights that everyone wants to see. The sports also needs to work on developing new heroes and personalities. I'd like to see more vignettes on fighters, focusing on their lives, goals and stories. Boxers need to be larger than life.”

332. “Yes, I am the Olympic champion, but this is not the end of it. I want all the gold that there is out there, everything that exists in figure skating. In all events, in all competitions.”

333. “Building a better life for every child is a lot harder than becoming a world champion. Both goals take dedication and commitment.”

334. “As the World Champion, every day is pretty much like Valentine's Day for me - as far as hooking up with the ladies.”

335. “My shirt and my hat always say 'World Champion' in some language. English, Spanish, Chinese, 'Star Wars' language, which is also known as Aurebesh, mermaid language.”

336. “In 1973 I became heavyweight champion of the world with 38 victories, no defeats as a professional. You get to a point where you think you cannot lose. I felt like I had the greatest power with my fists, I was the strongest man in the world.”

337. “What is clear is that business leaders must commit to champion change - to be transparent about their goals for change, to align their incentives systems to drive the change, and to make sure their work environments are flexible in a way that allows men and women who choose to work to be able to achieve all of their potential.”

338. “No matter what industry you're in, there will be naysayers. So you have to be your own champion.”

339. “I have always maintained that Iggy Pop is the Heavyweight Champion of Rock & Roll.”

340. “The main thing to know about me is that I'm a champion of entrepreneurs and the startups they build. They are my rock stars. If in doubt, I side with them, and that's clear from my writing.”

341. “I champion sensibly designed racial affirmative action, not because I have benefited from it personally - though I have. I support it because, on balance, it is conducive to the public good.”

342. “After 20 years of writing in basically a vacuum, I love being part of a community. I've vetted other writers' contracts for them and do publicity for free just because I like a book. Some people think of it as hubris or careerism, but I love to champion books. You can't use your whole sphere of influence just to help yourself.”

343. “The National is about however long it takes to run that race - eight minutes of fame - but champion jockey is about racing 365 days a year. I actually wouldn't swap any of my winners for the National.”

344. “Sir Gordon Richards was the most successful jockey - flat or jumps - there's ever been: champion jockey for 26 years. He set a record of 269 winners in the season 55 years before I broke it. That was my greatest achievement.”

345. “It always hurts a bit to pick the 'wrong one' in a race as big as the Champion Hurdle, and then, to make matters worse, you go and get beat by the horse you rejected.”

346. “Essentially, I am a dreamer. I've dreamed all my life. When I started, I dreamed I'd be Champion because it is a sport that is all about the people who win the most, and I have a fear of not winning.”

347. “When I started off riding, you dream about being champion jockey. Then I wanted to be champion jockey again. Then I wanted to ride 200 winners in a season. Then, when there was a chance of riding more winners than Richard Dunwoody, that was my goal.”

348. “I went to SG Formula and became Formula Renault 2.0 Champion. I went then to ART in Formula 3 and became Champion. Then I stayed with the team in GP2 Asia Series, and again, I became Champion. Then the first year of GP2 was really great. I was P4 at the end of the season, which was a fantastic result.”

349. “I was champion soprano of Sussex when I was 16!”

350. “Water and sanitation has not had the same kind of champion that global health, and even education, have had.”

351. “The political Right likes to champion individual rights and individual liberty, but it has also worked to enforce morality in relation to abortion, gambling, and homosexuality.”

352. “Senator Wyden continues to be the Senate's truest champion of an open Internet.”

353. “There will never be another Mariano Rivera. He was a friend and a champion of a teammate.”

354. “My biggest moment was winning the World Series because everyone in my town was able to feel he was a world champion.”

355. “We don't need more of the same, typical politicians fighting for themselves and for special interests. We need someone to believe in our small-business owners again and someone to champion those folks who play by the rules.”

356. “Growing up, all I did was write about the fact that I'm from where I'm from. I was a big champion of where I was from and Wisconsin in general, and the Midwest.”

357. “I think cricket is there in Usain Bolt's blood. Since I got to watch from close quarters, it was amazing to see him run up to bowl. The perfect delivery stride is understandable because he is a world champion athlete. But the manner - he loaded at the crease and then bowled the ball - left me zapped. He looked like a natural cricketer.”

358. “I ran into a couple of guys who were boxers. They talked me into working out at their gym. I became obsessed with boxing and the idea of becoming a champion.”

359. “There will never be another Mariano Rivera. He was a friend and a champion of a teammate. He really cared about the game of baseball, the way it was played, and whatever it took to win that night.”

360. “Joe Frazier's life didn't start with Ali. I was a Golden Gloves champ. Gold medal in Tokyo '64. Heavyweight champion of the world long before I fought Ali in the Garden.”

361. “Since I was a boy of five or six, I had it in my mind I would be a world boxing champion.”

362. “While the Super Bowl still smashes records for butts in the seats, eSports often run longer and never blinks. There's no commercial break. There's no halftime show. From start to finish, someone is going to walk home a champion, and you don't want to miss a second of it.”

363. “I used to trapshoot. I was actually a junior national champion. My parents are trapshooters, so I'm more into target stuff.”

364. “I like being the people's champion when it comes to dining.”

365. “I'd love to have a lasting impact as far as growing the game. It would be cool to be remembered as a major champion. I'd like to be remembered as a great golfer but also a great person, as far as growing the game and charity work. The whole well-rounded athlete.”

366. “I always loved reading. I always was the spelling bee champion. I always loved words. I always wanted to know what they meant, why you used them, who first said them. I was always interested in that.”

367. “I'm going to be a 'Chopped' champion.”

368. “Ask me what makes a champion runner, and I will tell you it helps to have the great good sense to choose your parents carefully.”

369. “Moorcock's interlinked 'Eternal Champion' series is a constant source of enjoyment. Of its tragic hero incarnations, my favourite is 'Elric of Melnibone,' and the best book has to be 'Stormbringer.' And as for that other sword, Excalibur? Pah! Use it to spread your butter.”

370. “A player cannot become a world champion overnight. To become a champion, a player has to sacrifice a lot and to devote much of his time practising and training.”

371. “I was world champion. For me, chess is my life. It is everything.”

372. “If, in our first match for the world champion's title, I had managed to make the score 6-0, there would have been no Kasparov as a good chess player at all.”

373. “To be a champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well.”

374. “My only real claim to fame is that I was southern England show-jumping champion in 1966. The day after my father died, 'Horse & Hound' magazine tipped me as a future Olympic champion, and I took it seriously. You can only really enjoy something if you take it seriously.”

375. “My greatest inspiration is my mother, the bravest person I ever knew. She overcame incredible odds, worked while raising two kids, and made it all look incredibly simple. Even in her final days succumbing to cancer, she fought like a champion.”

376. “As the 2016 presidential race kicks off, candidates on both sides of the aisle are promising to stand up for the middle class. Voters deserve to know that anyone who champions Obamacare cannot honestly say she or he is also a champion of middle-class Americans.”

377. “I'm a professional world champion. Of course if you're a world champion, you're working harder than everybody else. You're making the commitment, and you're making the sacrifices. If it were easy, everybody would be able to do it. Everybody would be able to be world champion, but everybody can't be. Everybody doesn't have it in them.”

378. “I would like to champion diverse forms like graphic novels and works told in verse and diverse writers and illustrators and diverse authors as well.”

379. “We Liberal Democrats don't believe we should use the tax structure to champion just one type of family.”

380. “I want our party to step up its efforts to reflect and champion the concerns of everybody who has reached the second half of their lives.”

381. “Boxing is made for film - there is corruption, violence, tragedy and the chance that the underdog can catch the champion with one lucky punch.”

382. “Publishers were ever eager for authors to do their own publicity because nobody else was willing to do it for nothing. But then it became clear that if you want somebody to champion the story, there's nobody better than the person who made it all up.”

383. “Gray space is fertile ground for fiction. When I can see both sides of an argument and feel strongly in both directions, then there's a story there, then I can write real characters that I care about and believe in and champion on both sides.”

384. “I win at golf. I'm a club champion many times at different clubs. I win at golf. I can sink the three-footer on the 18th hole when others can't.”

385. “My father is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, and yes, he was the Terminator! He is also a former Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia, two titles he earned as a champion bodybuilder.”

386. “Bitumen, the new national staple, is redefining the character and destiny of Canada. Rapid development of the tar sands has created a foreign policy that favours the export of bitumen to the United States and lax immigration standards that champion the import of global bitumen workers.”

387. “I'm the champion because I'm the best in every area.”

388. “A lot of people, once they become champion, they relax, kind of sit in the position and try to enjoy it. But I feel like everything I've ever worked for could be lost at any moment. I work harder and harder and harder, because I want to be farther ahead with every fight, and not worrying about these girls catching up to me.”

389. “Klitschko was the reigning champion for a decade and regarded by many as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. I'm never going to face another opponent with that legacy.”

390. “I never started in boxing to be a British champion or a world champion. There are loads of world champions in Britain, and if you mention them to someone out there on the street, nobody knows who they are.”

391. “He has been a world champion - great for him - but listen, whenever Lennox Lewis wants to come out of retirement, I'm here waiting for him because I'm the best British fighter to come out of these shores.”

392. “Wilder is not a big draw in the U.S. He maybe sells 5,000 to 10,000 tickets when he's fighting in his own town for the heavyweight champion.”

393. “I set out in the beginning to be the heavyweight champion of the world. From a very young age, I was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. Nothing else was a problem to me. That's what I'll finish doing.”

394. “I'm really excited about my future plans, as I'm doing things differently and currently training like a Trojan in pursuit of becoming heavyweight champion of the world.”

395. “I've got a winner mentality, the mentality of a champion.”

396. “I had been thinking, 'I've got to win because I'm Olympic champion'; actually, no, it's, 'I'm an Olympic champion for life,' I can just enjoy the rest.”

397. “After the Olympics and being on such a high and then losing in the World Championships, I was distraught. But now, looking back on it, I think it was the biggest blessing. I was going into every fight thinking I have to win because I am Olympic champion and putting too much pressure on myself. I lost my hunger and stopped enjoying my taekwondo.”

398. “I am Olympic champion for life, and I have learned to enjoy what that means.”

399. “The hunger has come back now because I want to be a double Olympic champion. I want to be a legend.”

400. “Winning the Olympics was an amazing feeling, but afterwards, it was a bit like, 'What do I do now?' So I lost a bit of motivation going back into training and competitions; I had so much pressure on me. I kept thinking, 'I'm the Olympic champion. I can't lose' - being only 19 and having to deal with all that pressure.”

401. “Because I am Olympic champion, everyone assumes I am this perfect athlete who should never lose. Every time I step in the ring, I am expected to win.”

402. “If I'm able to win the world championships when I'm not even at my best, then with another year until Rio, maybe I could even become Olympic champion.”

403. “I see it as a compliment to be compared to someone like Sharapova who has won five Slams. She's a great champion. I see it in a positive light. But also I'm my own person. I don't want to be the next someone else. I want to be the first of me.”

404. “It's an honour to be a world champion, and it can never be taken away from you.”

405. “In the Olympics, everything goes back to square one. The world champion or the world record holder or the ninth last year are fighting for the same medal, and you have got to go there like it was the first time.”

406. “Popov was double Olympic champion in '92 and '96, and then Gary Hall came along and won in 2000 and 2004, and I would be the next on the list. That's a good goal, to have my name on that list alongside these guys.”

407. “In the 1950s, when I was hanging around Sullivan's Gym and the Gramercy Gym, there were fixed fights. Mob guys like Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo had taken over the sport; one lightweight champion loaned his title to others at least twice; the welterweight division was a slag heap.”

408. “If it wasn't for John Peel, there would be no Joy Division and no New Order. He was one of the few people to give bands that played alternative music a chance to get heard, and he continued to be a champion of cutting-edge music throughout his life.”

409. “There's a responsibility to represent female MMA that comes with being the champion, just as there's a responsibility to represent and promote the show when you coach TUF.”

410. “I would love to earn another fight with Ronda Rousey again. She's the best in the world, and as a competitor you want to go up against the best. She's demolished everyone and I think I'm the only one that has taken her into the third round. I'm going to keep fighting and try to earn another fight with her. I'd love to become the UFC World Champion.”

411. “Trejo is one of the oldest boxing gyms in Cuba; it's outdoor, and every great champion the country has produced has passed through and was forged in the open air.”

412. “In the summer of 2007, two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and his teammate, Erislandy Lara, had been arrested in Brazil after going AWOL from the Cuban team during the Pan Am Games. The defection attempt made international news and quickly became a national soap opera, regularly appearing on Cuban news and round table discussions.”

413. “When I first asked my boxing coach, two-time Olympic champion Hector Vinent, what made the Cuban style of fighting distinct from the rest of the world, he smiled and told me to sit on a bench in Prado and watch the Cuban women walk.”

414. “At a certain point, Mike Tyson and I reacted to violence a little differently. I was afraid to leave my house for three years while he became the heavyweight champion of the world. The thing was, at first, we reacted to it the same way, and our cowardice and trauma defined us.”

415. “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.”

416. “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.”

417. “I want to be the European, Olympic, Commonwealth and world champion. I want the full set.”

418. “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.”

419. “When I was ten, I won the horseshoe-throwing contest at summer camp. I was also the Wiffle ball champion in my town.”

420. “I'm a champion for personal differences. I have no sympathy for drug companies that can't figure out how to make personalized medicine. We could generalize that to 'All society should be much more personalized.'”

421. “President Obama is highly concerned with education. He's a champion on early-childhood development strategies. So I like the work he's doing, and I support it, and I realise that he's one of very few political leaders around the world that actually has early-childhood development strategise at the top of his agenda.”

422. “Throughout her life, my grandmother was a champion for the arts and giving back.”

423. “I am delighted that Jason Gardener will be taking over from me as President of U.K. Athletics. With his competitive background in the sport as an Olympic champion coupled with his engaging personality and his experience as a board member of U.K. Athletics, he possesses all the qualities required to be a successful president.”

424. “I believe in myself. I want to be a fighter. I want to be heavyweight champion of the world.”

425. “I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.”

426. “I'm honored to have the support of Attorney General Bondi. She has been a champion for constitutionally limited government in Florida and across the nation. Our state is fortunate to have a leader so dedicated to the rule of law.”

427. “From 15 or 16, I always wanted to be an Olympic champion, but I don't think you ever believe it until it actually happens.”

428. “On the Agriculture Committee, I will be an ardent and strong champion for our farmers to ensure that they are treated fairly, particularly in regards to how their products are priced.”

429. “I never really felt I had the same respect as my male team-mates. My opinion wasn't worth as much. I used to sit quietly in meetings and not say anything, as I knew my opinions would be disregarded. And that's after I had become Olympic champion and multiple world champion.”

430. “I quite enjoy sport, and I'm now an Olympic champion. It's a bit weird, isn't it?”

431. “Paul Ryan is the mercenary champion of Hillary Clinton's - this is Hillary Clinton's. This came out of the State Department. This Trans Pacific Partnership is going to export our jobs. It's going to import foreign workers to replace Americans and our jobs.”

432. “I am the Olympic, World, Commonwealth, and European champion now, and I hope that's enough for people to accept that I am a half-decent British athlete.”

433. “I thought I was going to jump further than that, but I don't care - I'm Olympic champion.”

434. “When I picked athletics, I knew I wanted to be an Olympic champion.”

435. “I think it was just me who thought I could be Olympic champion. I've been telling myself that, and I did that.”

436. “I want to become double Olympic champion, triple Olympic champion, five-time world medallist.”

437. “When I chose athletics, I knew I wanted to be Olympic champion, and now I have done it in London.”

438. “I am very glad not only to complete the grand slam, but to become Olympic champion alone makes me happy.”

439. “I'm in awe of any Olympic champion, for sure.”

440. “I love being world champion.”

441. “I never expected to compete at home in a UCI women's race - let alone as world champion.”

442. “Crossing the line and being world champion, I've always dreamt about it, and now I've done it. It's quite a surreal feeling, but obviously very special.”

443. “I think about Rio every day. Every day in training, it's something that drives me forward. I want to be Olympic champion.”

444. “I am European Games champion now as well as Olympic champion, European champion, and world champion.”

445. “Nellie Kim, an Olympic champion from the former Soviet Union, got a 10 right after me in '76, but nobody talks about that.”

446. “Once you become an Olympic champion, you are expected to win all the time.”

447. “The real Amazons were long believed to be purely imaginary. They were the mythical warrior women who were the archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Every Greek hero or champion, from Hercules to Theseus and Achilles, had to prove his mettle by fighting a powerful warrior queen.”

448. “I had a stunt double for 'The Bronze.' She's literally the most amazing human being I've ever seen. She's NCAA women's gymnastics champion. She was incredible. I would poke her thighs, and my nail would break because it was like poking a rock.”

449. “I've been laughing with my brothers about it. Paul and Stephen both won the British title before me, but I'm going to be the first world champion in the family.”

450. “I'm world champion, so if I'm not ready for another fighter at 154, I don't deserve to be world champion. That's the way I look at it and what I firmly believe.”

451. “It's always Canelo, and it's Mexican Independence Day, so I know that. But I am the champion, and just looking back on that, that is one reason why I hope they'll respect that I'm champion and be fair.”

452. “Canelo's the big name, but I am the champion going in… I took this fight. I'm not in a situation where I have nothing to lose in this fight. I've got a title to lose.”

453. “I made my debut on October 10, 2008, so it'll be seven years to the day that I could become world champion. That's a massive night to be crowned.”

454. “I'm so proud, and it feels brilliant to be a world champion.”

455. “People said I didn't deserve to be World Champion, but I think I've proved it.”

456. “I didn't become world champion to fight Jimmy Kelly.”

457. “I am a believer in the rights of the unborn and the goodness of every life, and I have promised that, as governor, I will champion those values.”

458. “I have always been a strong champion for New Hampshire's environment.”

459. “The political hero is not like the sports champion or matinee idol or daring inventor; like the war hero, he is born only of tragedy.”

460. “To those people doubting Serena Williams, writing her off - do not do that to a champion.”

461. “I was only 24 years old when I won my first Olympia. To be that young and the world champion was a lot of pressure. When I won the 8th one, I had the record. I was on top: that was the absolute best that I ever looked onstage, the best training and prep that I had done, and I had no regrets. I knew it was time to walk away.”

462. “I'd tell you whose brand was tainted is Donald Trump. I mean, this guy was tainted every kind of way you could imagine. I mean, no way in the world that Donald Trump is a champion of working people.”

463. “I'm going to be fighting to rebuild the Democratic party no matter what. I'm going to be fighting to make sure the Democratic party is known among working people that we are their champion no matter what.”

464. “As I see it, my job has always been to champion the work of the authors I publish.”

465. “My dream role is Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion.”

466. “Basically my whole life revolves around soccer. I don't take many vacations. Everything just gets put on the back burner because of my training. I miss out on a lot of weddings and family functions. But at the end of the day, I'm sitting here as a world champion, and it feels pretty good.”

467. “I always needle a bit when people say I'm a champion of the Poles, because I've always had a very multinational view of Poland.”

468. “I was a true wrestler. I was a Division I national champion. I came into the business wanting one thing and one thing only, and that was to be the champion, and I wasn't going to let anybody stand in my way. I think there was one guy that had a problem with that, and that was Undertaker.”

469. “I have a really strong opponent in Randy Orton. A former multi-time world champion. He's held just about every title under the sun. And he's done it all in a major way. He's basically wreaked havoc and ran roughshod over the WWE for quite some time. Some people might forget that.”

470. “From my mom telling me 'no' to now telling everyone I'm the champion, and she's so proud of me, and to prove to a lot of people - who didn't believe in me, who didn't think I was going to be here - that I'm here, and I did it. It's been a roller coaster of emotions; it's amazing.”

471. “That feeling is one of the things that keep me going. On July 6, 1998, I became the WCW heavyweight champion of the world!”

472. “A champion's strength comes from never being contented.”

473. “What Trump means for us is that we've won the first battle. At a minimum, he's a necessary course correction from the excesses of the social justice Left. At most, he's the saviour of the First and Second Amendments, protector of the Supreme Court, and champion of the little guy. In other words, just what America needed.”

474. “I was always a champion of the minority, of the underdog.”

475. “The belt doesn't represent me; it's how you deal with people, how you represent yourself as a champion. The belt is a sign of a champion, but what makes a champion is the things I have just said.”

476. “What makes a champion great is how he dethrones the guy before him. Look at Mike Tyson against Trevor Berbick and how he crushed him. You have to rip the title away from him.”

477. “Ali was a legend of our sport. For me as a kid, he inspired me to represent myself like a champion in and out of the ring.”

478. “Donald Trump is a champion for legal immigrants.”

479. “I'm the former lightweight champion. I want to fight one of the top guys. I don't want to fight a guy who isn't ranked.”

480. “I came from the bottom. Now I'm the main event and UFC champion.”

481. “I don't want to just be a champion, and I'm done with that. I wanna be a lightweight legend.”

482. “I train to be the champion.”

483. “Growing up, I would never have thought that I'd be a double Olympic champion, with a lovely home and beautiful kids.”

484. “For me, the people who doubt me only fuel me to prove them wrong. I want to prove to them that I am better than they think I am and that I deserve to be on top and I deserve to be World Heavyweight Champion.”

485. “I think titles are important to your career. Whether you reign as champion for a long time or just have it for the time being, to be part of a company and be their champion is always good to have on your resume.”

486. “I don't want to go back to WWE and burn out within four or five months, and having another run as TNA world champion would feel just as good.”

487. “Whether I ever become WWE champion in my career, I'm proud of what I've done.”

488. “I would love to end my career as World Champion.”

489. “I'm definitely an active champion. I'm looking forward to defending my belt as many times as possible.”

490. “I'm the guy who has everything it takes to be heavyweight champion of the world. It's not just about being great inside the ring: it's about being able to do great things outside of the ring. Not everyone has that. I love to be out there with the people.”

491. “I'm going to be the champion for a long time.”

492. “When I do become the champion, I'll still be a fire fighter.”

493. “Junior Dos Santos is one of the best heavyweight fighters of all time, and he has proven it by being a champion. That is something that I want to be in my career, and I understand to achieve that, I have to beat guys like him.”

494. “When I become champion, you know, I'll never stop being a firefighter.”

495. “Cleveland, we've got a champion, baby!”

496. “He's been doing this a long time. Hats off to a champion, Carlos Condit.”

497. “The best part about being a champion is going out and defending your belt, so that's what I plan on doing and doing it many times.”

498. “Dan Henderson has been a fighter for a long time, and he's been a champion in many different organizations.”

499. “The first thing I saw was that Brett Rogers had his way very quickly - in 20 seconds - with a UFC champion, Andrei Arlovski.”

500. “I want to be a champion for a long time, and I want to take the least amount of punishment possible doing so.”

501. “I want to be the light heavyweight champion of the world.”

502. “Anytime you fight a champion, you got to watch the tape closely and study him closely.”

503. “There's always great things that champions do. It can be inside fighting, this person uses his range well, this person has a great right hand - anytime you fight a champion, there's multiple things that they do well, and you have to try to take those strengths away.”

504. “There's a lot of ways to win a belt, but taking it from a champion is very important to me.”

505. “Being a champion is not just being a frontrunner and being ahead, but it's facing adversity.”

506. “I'm a five-time world champion in two different weight classes. Man, it's amazing.”

507. “Fighting in the UFC means that I'm at the top of the sport, and it means that I'm able to pursue my goal of being a champion in the UFC.”

508. “You have to be a champion in all facets of life.”

509. “As a champion and one of the best fighters in the world, guys should always step up to the plate and want to fight Jon Jones.”

510. “If you're the UFC champion, you're the best in the world at what you do, and I get the opportunity to do that.”

511. “I'm gonna live my life the correct way, and I'm gonna be a champion the kids look up to and hopefully aspire to be like.”

512. “When you start fighting, when your dream is to be the champion of the world, when you accomplish that, you don't feel lost. It doesn't hinder you. It only helps.”

513. “For a long time, I felt like my identity was to fight. My identity was to be a world champion. That almost defined me.”

514. “If you want to be that world champion, you have to be willing to beat anybody on this planet - no strings attached.”

515. “I am a dreamer. And what I dream of is to become Olympic champion, world champion, world record holder.”

516. “When you're watching people in non-title fights making four times the amount of money that a champion makes, it takes away the flavor of being a champion.”

517. “I have stated many times that one of my goals was to become K-1 champion. K-1 is, in our country Holland, very popular, and it's a big opportunity to become the first person that holds two world titles in two different sports.”

518. “The top 10 is really a media thing anyway unless you're the champion, but otherwise, it's always speculation.”

519. “Everything I do is for my parents, None of this matters without them. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here… If it wasn't for them, if it wasn't for the structure and the backbone that I have, I wouldn't be able to mess up and keep coming back and sit in front of you as a world champion.”

520. “'Ali' is the story of a lower middle-class golfer who becomes a champion. I find the game very interesting and would like to continue playing it regularly after the movie is wrapped up.”

521. “My grandfather was Scottish and just loved the game. My grandmother was a great golfer and a club champion. Whenever I was visiting them, I got a double barrel of golf lore. I guess it was always in my blood.”

522. “I love to cook. I'm a sailor. And I was the eighth-grade ping-pong champion.”

523. “You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger champion of high-speed rail than me when the bond went to voters. I believed in it.”

524. “We want to make the Cleveland Cavaliers a perennial champion and contender. We want people to be part of the franchise for long periods of time if they fit our culture, no matter who they are, whether it's LeBron or anybody that contributes.”

525. “You can't go to college and develop into an Olympics champion. It takes too much time, too much training.”

526. “There are elements to my faith which are echoed very closely in the scripts that come through. I read certain moments, and I'm able to say, 'Yes, I recognize that. I champion that. I ally myself to that idea.' Then there are times where I don't. My feeling is, at this stage in my life, that it will be an ongoing struggle.”

527. “Donald Trump is a champion of women. He recognizes that we add to the conversation, and that certainly something as Republican Party chair I'm going to be reaching out to women all across this country.”

528. “The pain that all people experience in life and the light that helps them champion through it all - it's their lives and their stories and their love and will to keep living that moves me to write.”

529. “I turned pro as a 20-year-old, won a world title a year later, and remained a world champion ever since.”

530. “As a scientist in charge of space sensors and entire space missions before I was at NASA, I myself was involved in projects that overran. But that's no excuse for remaining silent about this growing problem or failing to champion reform.”

531. “It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job, but I'm not sure that - I'm not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that.”

532. “I married the reigning mustache champion.”

533. “I think the best thing I've written is a story called 'The Boxer and the Blonde.' It's a piece about Billy Conn, the white would-be heavyweight champion of the world, who lived in Pittsburgh.”

534. “Sascha is an unbelievable player; he's going to be a champion. Hopefully, I can get there one day. Hopefully, I can get to his level. I mean, he's still better than me. But I'll keep working hard, and hopefully we could start a little bit of a rivalry.”

535. “Your sister knows everything to say to piss you off. But sisters tend to be each other's biggest champion and also their hardest critics.”

536. “I volunteered to join Mr. Trump's campaign because he is a champion of working families, not Washington-Wall Street elites.”

537. “A guy who's not a champion can't talk too much about championships, can he?”

538. “A lot of people are successful in this business because of a catchphrase or athletic ability or charisma or wrestling; Ric Flair is the personification of all of those things, much like his daughter Charlotte, as she is already a multiple-time champion after only a few years in the WWE.”

539. “Now I can say I'm a Grand Slam champion, and it sounds really crazy.”

540. “My whole life, I've been working really hard, and I can say I'm a grand slam champion.”

541. “Serena, for me, is one of the best players in the world. She is a great person and a great champion.”

542. “All my life, I wanted to be champion.”

543. “All my life I wanted to be WWE champion, so when I won that, that was great.”

544. “Ever since I was 3 years old, I wanted to be WWE champion. I got that belt during WrestleMania 31, and I want it back. It's what drives me.”

545. “Me, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Lyoto Machida, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, all shared a two-bedroom apartment together.”

546. “I went from being a guy who was sparingly being used on television to being the World Heavyweight Champion and the focus of a lot of the storylines on Smackdown.”

547. “I remember, the first times watching WWF, Bret Hart was kind of the man, winning King of the Ring, technical master, and he could go for an hour. He had a million different moves he could beat anyone with. Just rugged, dynamic champion. He was so cool.”

548. “Trump bankrupted six companies but succeeded on the biggest of stages. He is the champion of failures.”

549. “As China's retailing champion, Alibaba makes Amazon look like a company that carefully picks its spots. Sure, Amazon does e-tailing. So does Alibaba.”

550. “If I can put the right guy with the right mouthpiece in front of the right opponents, we can build a champion, but he doesn't really have to beat the best guys; we just have to give him the right matchups.”

551. “I will do whatever the UFC tells me to do, but there's not a doubt in my mind that I can be champion.”

552. “I've experienced success, I've experienced failure, I've been a world champion, I've fought all over the world; I think I've experienced enough that I won't get in front of a million people and get gunshy.”

553. “I wanted to be clear that Republicans will continue to be a champion for expanding economic freedom to trade. It is at the heart of our free-enterprise system.”

554. “I hope that I can continue to champion Dr. Paul's efforts to audit the Fed, protect state's rights, and getting our nation back on track.”

555. “This Martina Navratilova is a real champion, but with the proper training, I can make miracles happen.”

556. “Whatever work I have done in a very short span of time, like 'Balika Vadhu,' 'Kitchen Champion 4,' 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa,' and 'Bigg Boss 7,' has been great for me.”

557. “I am proud to be the first British champion, and headlining MSG is a testament to all the hard work.”

558. “Financially, I've done very well doing what I do. I've got plenty of money in the bank. I've got gigs with FOX doing analyst work, media work. The UFC has been very kind to me. Ultimately, however, I want to be world champion. I have to achieve that to validate my entire career.”

559. “I worked in factories, slaughterhouses, as an upholsterer. I did demolition work, was a postman, was a tiler, a plasterer. I even sold double-glazing door-to-door. But I always dreamed of being a world champion, first of all as a boxer.”

560. “I always support British athletes of all sports, including Tyson Fury. I think he's a great boxer. However, if he's calling out UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez, then quite frankly, he's living in a fantasy world and needs to come back to reality.”

561. “Obviously, every fighter wants to be the world champion, and that's what I want to achieve.”

562. “I've had ups and downs in my career, and if you look at it as a bookmaker, the odds of me becoming a world champion were never in my favour, but I never stopped believing in myself and never stopped trying.”

563. “I always wanted to be the champion, and I had belief in myself that I could achieve it. But along the way, of course, you've also got to be a realist. You lose a couple of fights here and there, and you think maybe it's not going to happen.”

564. “I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem.”

565. “The days of the heavyweight champion as civil rights leader are long gone. You think you'd see Ali rolling around on the floor of an ESPN Zone? I don't think so.”

566. “The days of a tennis champion as a gender rights leader are over.”

567. “I will always make films that champion outsiders, because I still feel like one, even though I'm now governor of the documentary branch of the Academy.”

568. “Our overriding mantra is to be customer champion.”

569. “I was world champion, but I was never able to celebrate it. It was a joke for me.”

570. “I was loving being the champion, and I wasn't listening to my body. I almost felt like I was untouchable in a way - that I could just keep going and everything would be OK.”

571. “Goal number one is to be the welterweight champion of the world, and I'm away from my family way too often. This is a sport where we can make cash now.”

572. “If I have a chance to make a larger amount of money in a legacy fight against the No. 1 welterweight in history, it makes sense for me to want that fight. You have a lot of pay-per-view money coming to this company. Why shouldn't the champion partake in a piece of that pie?”

573. “The second I bring up race in the sport, I'm immediately race-baiting. But I can point out clear facts, where no other champion has been treated like me.”

574. “I'm a person who believes that if a team that's producing a champion and producing contenders in that same division, then the coaches should be proud of that and pat themselves on the back because they're really creating a dynasty, so that's the way I take it.”

575. “I want to leave a legacy behind. I want the chance to measure myself against the top guys and to have them bring out that champion within me in the Octagon.”

576. “Martin Luther King didn't know he was going to have a day named after him; Muhammad Ali didn't know he was going to be the people's champion. He was doing what he was doing because it was right.”

577. “You look at the top five right now and see guys like Kelvin Gastelum, who I've beaten, Carlos Condit, who I've beaten, Robbie Lawler, who I've beaten. How are those guys more notable than I am, and I'm the champion of the world?”

578. “For me, it's about the legacy, being the best fighter and a champion who takes all comers. I'm going to make more money outside the Octagon, after my career, than I make in it. But it's making it difficult for me to achieve my goals when I have unnecessary stumbling blocks like my promoter saying damaging comments about me.”

579. “The Cubs, we built one of best farm systems - I think for a while there, it was the best farm system in baseball. And that was great. It got a lot of attention. But we didn't want the credit for the farm system. What we wanted was to see if we could do the tricky part, which was turn a lauded farm system into a World Series champion.”

580. “Every time we do a new record, we do the best we can. For us, every record is stepping into the ring with another heavyweight champion.”

581. “It's true I wasn't as important at Chelsea. I never demanded that. What I wanted was to be a champion, because few people get that. I succeeded. But the happiness wasn't there.”

582. “Wherever Mourinho goes, he is a champion.”

583. “Back in 1978, when I was still in high school, I went to see a Broadway show, 'Paul Robeson,' starring James Earl Jones. It was all about Robeson's journey as a human being, an artist, a champion of civil rights. Had I not seen the play, I might not have known who Robeson was. I was certainly never taught about him in school.”

584. “I win for long time. I'm champion for long time - for years.”

585. “I think everyone deserves their place in this sport, and Bisping has been around, and he's fought hard and deserves to be the champion.”

586. “I'm over this thing of being champion, having the title.”

587. “We have launched Champion's Pro Kushti to revive the passion for the game of wrestling in India, the country where it actually originated.”

588. “As CEO of a big company, I have to be a kind of a champion of the interests of our people as insofar as their ability to do their job, to feel comfortable in their work environment, and to be able to fulfill their ambitions.”

589. “Outside of America, there are many people, myself included, who champion values that in some senses could be thought of as traditionally American: The idea that everybody is equal; the idea that the rights of women and men should be the same.”

590. “Trudeau, like President Barack Obama, is a champion of change.”

591. “Accenture has long been a champion of inclusion and diversity and, specifically, gender balance at every level of our organization, including our board of directors.”

592. “People who champion Trump say they don't want politics-as-usual. But 'politic' is also an adjective. It means 'tactful and diplomatic.' It's necessary for an elected official to be politic.”

593. “I did a film on Muhammad Ali before he was champion. I was there when he became champion in 1964. I was happy to be able to document the development of a real American hero.”

594. “1988 Olympic Champion Brian Boitano was famous for doing a Lutz with one arm over his head. And I wanted to build on that.”

595. “It's reassuring knowing that people are supporting me and want to know more about me. It comes with being the national champion and making the Olympic team. I think that it's telling me I'm on the right path.”

596. “My experience in Ethiopia helped shape my vision for WHO. We need to promote evidence-based decision-making and awareness. Specifically, we need to advocate for research and development, champion and support global and regional coalitions, and strengthen national capacity.”

597. “I hope that a lot of the men and women who feel forgotten in this country really see that they have in me a champion.”

598. “Sheryl Sandberg was a mentor and a champion for me, and she saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.”

599. “When I created Mary for the 'Batgirl' issue of 'Night of the Owls,' there was a lot of excitement at DC. Scott Snyder in particular was a champion for the character, bless him.”

600. “This was a theme of Sen. Akaka's career - to advocate for people who did not have power, for people who were vulnerable. He was a champion for the federal government employees who continue to this day to be a punching bag for some.”

601. “My wife is an Olympic gold medalist, WNBA All-Star, 'Jeopardy!' champion, and Rhodes Scholarship finalist who was sung to by President Clinton, sung about by Ludacris, and serenaded on 'Sesame Street' by a chorus of Muppets.”

602. “Having witnessed the success of Acadian Ambulance firsthand over the years, I became a champion for the employee stock ownership plan business model. This was easy to do based on the evidence that employee stock ownership plans are reliable, high-performing sources of retirement security.”

603. “Serena Williams is the ultimate champion. She knows what it takes to get to the top.”

604. “Even when the heavyweight champion was a fighter of limited ability, he was still the heavyweight champion of the world.”

605. “The ultimate goal of any athlete in any sport is to become a true world champion.”

606. “There are hundreds of young fighters whose handlers believe them to be a future world champion or the next great heavyweight or another Sugar Ray Robinson. The young men who inspire these beliefs are known as 'prospects.'”

607. “At the end of the day, I could go back to getting sixth or seventh place and being a mediocre skater, or I could be a champion. I want to be a champion.”

608. “I am a great champion.”

609. “Classic English liberalism of the sort that 'The Economist' was founded to champion and still espouses is about open societies and free markets.”

610. “Retiring as the champion and being the only athlete to ever do that, I think goals like that are set in the mind. I want to make that happen.”

611. “I know who I am. I'm a former world champion.”

612. “Jon Jones is a great champion, but me in my prime, I was devastating. I was vicious. Nobody could stop me. Of course I could beat him in my prime.”

613. “I love to champion some of the hardworking actors where, it's been said to me, they don't bring money. But to me, they bring everything. They bring their wonderful selves.”

614. “I don't care about being the champ champ. I want to be the only consecutive 12-time defending champion in any mixed martial arts promotion.”

615. “For every champion, after you win the belt, you want to defend it as many times as possible.”

616. “The audience wants something that entertains them, and whether that entertainment is in the form of a physical match or in the form of a skit or video or promo, it's our job to deliver it to them, to the point where the audience becomes the biggest champion of our brand. And if we can't match that, then we're falling short.”

617. “I was a huge fan of Raven because of the way he redefined how a champion should wrestle.”

618. “My younger brother ended up the British chess champion 10 times, a record.”

619. “People never believe it when they find out I'm a karate world champion. They don't see me as the type because I'm small and blonde.”

620. “I think I got nominated in the MTV Brand New Top 10 because I'm 3x world time karate champion, and I'd probably just beat everyone up if they didn't put me in it. They were all scared!”

621. “HBO has been incredible and a huge champion of my work, my passions, and has been a great home for my talent, I feel.”

622. “I am not somebody who goes around saying men are superior or that male writers are superior. In fact, I really go out of my way to champion women's work that I think is not getting enough attention. None of that is ever enough. Because a villain is needed. It's like there's no way to make myself not male.”

623. “I've been Intercontinental Champion lots of times, Television Champion. One of my favorites has been the Hardcore Championship because it reflected my favorite style, and I feel that the X Division belt does that, too.”

624. “To be ECW champion is something that I take very, very seriously.”

625. “I'm not saying Gustafsson isn't a champion. He's not the champion that I am. He's not a champion at all. I've won the belt seven times. He got tapped out by Phil Davis and lost to me fair and square. This guy gets so much praise. Having a close fight with me was the greatest thing he's ever done.”

626. “My wrestling dream was to become a Division I national champion. That was my No. 1 dream - not Olympics, not money. Just winning that tournament.”

627. “Daniel Cormier has been a model champion. He will be a champion for the rest of his life.”

628. “I'm a champion, and I believe that if you're a champion, you can't be afraid to go out there and test yourself against the greatest challenges.”

629. “I would like to be champion - that is everybody's ultimate goal - but my one goal at all times, whether on Raw, Smackdown, a pay-per-view, or a live event, is to make people walk away and remember what I did.”

630. “I've been part of so many pay-per-views, and I've been in the ring with John Cena and Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton and Chris Jericho and Roman Reigns… all the top names. And I've been Intercontinental champion twice.”

631. “Everybody wants to get the MITB contract; that usually means at some point they will become champion. That's a big deal; that's what everybody strives for.”

632. “I like having titles. I feel like when I walk out and I don't have a title, it's strange. Even in the independent scene before I got to WWE, I was a champion in most of the companies I wrestled for. Being a champion is just what I do.”

633. “I have dreamed of being a champion in WWE, and there's nothing I won't do, no length I won't go to, in order to keep it that way.”

634. “I've done a fair amount of commercials. I did a bunch of Champion spark plug ads and Levi's and Molson Beer. You wouldn't know it. But some of it's damn good.”

635. “It's like a dream come true, coming to the Olympic trails and leaving being the champion.”

636. “It's pretty cool to be called a champion.”

637. “I want to be the most influential champion, in a positive light. I want to change the world.”

638. “Given how majestically slim she always was, it's a little odd to admit that I can remember bellowing that Whitney Houston was The Heavyweight Champion of the World! on the MTV News floor back in the '90s.”

639. “There was originally no plan in place for me to become WWE champion. It felt like I became the No. 1 contender out of nowhere. I call what I did forcing the results. I wasn't happy with my position. I was putting in the work, but I wasn't getting the results. I was going to force the result no matter what the cost.”

640. “Getting released in 2014 was the best thing that happened to me because I got to regain my focus, regain my pride, and come back as the best-conditioned athlete there is in WWE, which ultimately led me to become the single greatest WWE champion.”

641. “I want to be the IC Champion. I want to be the U.S. Champion. I want to be the tag team champion. I want to hold all the championships.”

642. “I'm really proud to represent both cultures, Canadian and Indian, and hopefully I'm making both countries proud as WWE champion.”

643. “Personally, I am hoping being champion will increase the WWE Universe in India because I know that Indian fans are really passionate, and I want to be WWE Champion in India.”

644. “One of my goals is definitely to motivate the youth towards sports. Whether it's arts or academics, I just want to let them know that anything is possible. To think that I grew up as a WWE fan and now I'm a WWE champion proves that through hard work anything really is possible.”

645. “I have no problem with Brock Lesnar being a part-timer, because he's earned that spot. He's a multiple time champion in WWE, a former UFC Champion, NCAA amateur wrestling champion, so his accolades speak for themselves.”

646. “My wife loves to tell me that I love to tell people, 'Oh, I never thought WWE would sign me. I never thought I'd be on TV. I never thought I'd be a champion. I never thought any of those things were remotely possible.'”

647. “I am dying to be a world champion, a single's world champion.”

648. “At the end of the day, I want to be a world champion.”

649. “I want to be Intercontinental Champion. I also want to be a tag-team champion.”

650. “I believe that I will be the WWE World Champion one day. I know that a lot of people say that; it's easy to say. If I were to go away without accomplishing that task, I would feel unfulfilled, to be completely honest.”

651. “I think that the female workforce is so valuable. And if we're going to champion women in the workforce, which our economy seems to want to do, we have to deal with the realities, which is that they have children, and they need a way to take care of their children in a supportive work environment.”

652. “That generic outlook of what a 'WWE champion' should be is a joke to me. The casual fan walks in and expects to see a guy in short trunks with abs and a shaven body. I do not believe in that.”

653. “What I teach our people is that, as a leader, you have four key roles apart from people management. First is to champion the grand vision. Two, install systems and a culture to run experiments. The third thing is to savour surprises. The fourth thing is that even a leader's ideas need to be subjected to tests.”

654. “I was world's champion in every aspect of the life. Whether it was sitting in a steak house eating a steak or getting onto the edge of the ring with two or three people standing there, it was all the same to me. I was world's champion, and for that reason, I was world's champion.”

655. “I started wrestling when I was 15 years old, and back when I was world champion, I was wrestling 7 nights a week.”

656. “I was a wrestling-style champion, and the Hulkster was a talking-style.”

657. “I want to do something that has never been done, and that's become the first two-time NXT Champion. In a sense, that's a strange distinction to want, but that has to be my goal while I'm in NXT.”

658. “I'm a special case: I'm a former stuntwoman and former kickboxing champion, but you couldn't be more overqualified for the job. I cannot be the base level for what women have to do to be trusted with action, because the guys don't have that base level.”

659. “If I can beat a proven champion like Canelo, that will take my career to a different level.”

660. “I worked hard to become of champion of the world.”

661. “I don't think I'll ever be out of wrestling, because I was that kid at 8 years old that dreamed of being a world champion.”

662. “To be the first NXT Women's Champion is such an honor.”

663. “My big goal is to be a champion in MLS.”

664. “I had a dream as a young boy to be Olympic champion in boxing, and that's what I focused on with my father - making it a reality.”

665. “As far as moving to 130, I got tired of waiting for the other champions, none of whom wanted to fight me. I'm hopeful that with the move to 130 lbs. will come better fights, particularly against the other champions, so we can make our dream of becoming undisputed champion.”

666. “I came to this sport to prove to myself and others that I am this big and loud champion.”

667. “So far, I don't know what it means to be the champion. I'm just glad I have the belt.”

668. “I want the Intercontinental title to be seen as more than just a 'mid-card belt.' The Intercontinental Champion used to be seen as a threat to the WWE Champion. My goal is to return the Intercontinental Championship to that level of importance.”

669. “My stats don't even need to be said, but I'll say them anyway. I'm a 14-time champion. I'm a two-time Slammy award winner. I've done movies. I host my own show. How much more do you want in an athlete, in a star, than The Miz?”

670. “Not many people get to say, 'I'm a WWE champion.' It's pretty incredible just to hear those words coming out of my mouth.”

671. “I remember the first time I stepped into a WWE ring, and I got critiqued, and I was told I'd be gone in three months. Here I sit ten years later, and I'm the Intercontinental champion.”

672. “I don't think of myself as the champion too often, honestly.”

673. “I just don't want to be a champion; I want to be one of the best fighters there ever was.”

674. “What I did at the start of each season, regardless if I was coming back as the champion, was run indoors and take forward steps from the first race.”

675. “I have adapted and feel comfortable in the middle, but I am a world and European champion at right back.”

676. “When I won the NXT women's title from Natalya at Full Sail, becoming the second-ever woman's champion for NXT, that's when I knew, 'Okay, I'm doing the right thing,' and that I could do this.”

677. “I want to be the longest-reigning Raw Women's Champion. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.”

678. “Who else is willing to fight Woodley at six weeks' notice? Nobody. That's why it's come to me. But I will dethrone the champion and start a new era. I'll be an active champion, so they can all get in line.”

679. “The UFC want me as their champion. The welterweight division needs me as its champion. It's been static for too long. I'll win the title, defend it a couple of times, and then move up to middleweight.”

680. “I'm in this sport to be the champion. I want to be a great champion and go down in history for it.”

681. “I'm looking at the belt on the top of the bag across from me, and it still hasn't fully hit me. There are multiple stages to all of this, but I know that every time I walk into a gym or go to a new locker room since I won the title, I've felt like the world champion.”

682. “I wanted to be a world champion of some sorts since I got into the industry, when I was 15 years old, and I was able to do that.”

683. “Nothing has been more exciting for me knowing that Ring of Honor is experiencing their best crowds, their best buy rates, and their best merchandise numbers while I'm the champion.”

684. “The Latino people in the U.S. and the Mexicans in Mexico need a UFC champion. We have a rich tradition in boxing, and to not have a Mexican heavyweight champion is unheard of. We need it. I'm glad I'm able to be in a position to give them that champion they so desperately want.”

685. “I feel great being the first Mexican heavyweight UFC champion.”

686. “Growing up, at high school, we all used to wear Champion garments, which, in America, are standard-issue gym uniforms.”

687. “I never told my parents that I was doing boxing. They only came to know after I became state champion and my name and picture came in the newspaper.”

688. “When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, 'What can women do in boxing?' I took it as a challenge. If men can do it, why can't women? And I became a world champion before my marriage.”

689. “Before I debuted, it was my goal to make my debut, and afterwards, I aimed at winning champion titles on television music shows, and I hoped for a chance to perform as a soloist.”

690. “It is true - maybe with five or seven points more, I could be five times world champion. But on the other hand, I could have zero world championships, and zero wins or zero podiums, because F1 is an extremely competitive environment. So I just take the positives, and I am happy with my achievements.”

691. “Who inside MMA that's a champion goes to fight Muay Thai? Nobody. But I love competing.”

692. “A champion must be ready at all times.”

693. “I'm a two-time world champion in jiu-jitsu. I can try to submit you.”

694. “As a World Champion, it is important that you face the #1 contender. That is what makes it sport and not entertainment; otherwise, what are the girls fighting at 145 lbs. training to work towards if they know they will never be given a title shot, even if they become the best in the world?”

695. “I want to be a champion. I want to be a long-reigning featherweight champion. I want to be known in the history books: my name everywhere as a champion. And then, later on in my career, when I start getting good, then I can start doing the exhibition matches for money and stuff.”

696. “They should just put 'two' beside everybody's name, you know? Because there's only No. 1 guy out there, and that's the champion.”

697. “Aldo is a hell of a champion.”

698. “You know Rockhold is a very good athlete and great fighter. He is a champion in Strikeforce, in UFC.”

699. “Of course I will turn professional at some stage. Then I want to be a world champion and finish up a legend and be out of the sport by the time I am 27.”

700. “I know people didn't think I'd become a world champion - even people probably in my own camp, my own team, didn't think I'd become a world champion this quickly.”

701. “The way I look at it is I had to retire as world champion with my last match at WrestleMania.”

702. “Obviously, being WWE Champion was my main goal in life, but when I started acting, the main thing I wanted to do was play a superhero or supervillain.”

703. “I was a high school wrestler. I was city champion.”

704. “Flair was a tricky guy to work with when I worked with Ric. When he was champion, we had much better matches, and the moment the title got switched, we seemed to screw up my match every night.”

705. “I was champion, off and on, for quite a few years, and I never missed one title match from an injury. I got hurt lots of times, but the reality is you've got so much pinned on you and so much tied onto you, the company and your peers can't afford for you to get hurt.”

706. “I tell you very openly: it's much easier to be the heavyweight champion of the world than to be the mayor of Kiev.”

707. “I am thankful for this title of champion emeritus and proud I never lost my title.”

708. “I didn't expect one day I become world champion in the United States. I'm very proud to be together with boxing legends. It's a dream to be in with Muhammad Ali.”

709. “My brother is much stronger, faster, and when he becomes heavyweight champion again, I will be in his corner. One Klitschko may be gone now, but not the Klitschko name.”

710. “Lennox Lewis after the fight promised to give me rematch, and I very appreciate I have a chance to fight the great champion, great fighter that's Lennox Lewis.”

711. “I'm not Ken Shamrock the MMA World Champion No Holds Barred fighter. I'm Ken Shamrock, The World's Most Dangerous Man. Professional wrestling and MMA champion.”

712. “In my professional career, every time I jumped into an organization, I always reached the top and the title. I know with NWA with Jeff Jarrett, TNA, I was their first heavyweight champion, so I was able to reach that pinnacle. With Pancrase, I was their first champion and was also able to bring it to the U.S. using my character.”

713. “I've always liked Dzeko - he's a champion.”

714. “The world should have one champion.”

715. “I realise now that a lot of the things I was doing weren't helping me to get to the goal I want to achieve - to become the champion of the world.”

716. “My motivation is being unified heavyweight champion of the world, making New Zealand and my family proud.”

717. “It's a quality you need to be a world champion; you have to have that killer instinct.”

718. “Everyone wants to be UFC champion, and that's my goal and my dream.”

719. “I was K-1 world champion.”

720. “It's a dream of mine to be a mixed martial arts world champion.”

721. “On May 29 2016, my wildest dreams came true. I became the WBC cruiserweight champion of the world at Goodison Park. The dream location, the dream title, the dream ending, a third-round knockout of Iunga Makabu.”

722. “I like the thought of gaining revenge over WBC light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, who beat me in 2013.”

723. “I left home when I was 13. When I was 15, I was living in a youth hostel, and I was the 167-pound amateur wrestling champion.”

724. “You never let somebody come from outside the business, have their way with the business, and then leave the next day and laugh at you. How the hell does David Arquette become World Champion?”

725. “I idolised former sprint and hurdling champion Colin Jackson.”

726. “I want to be a champion.”

727. “Seeing myself as a champion in WWE is something I've seen from the first day I stepped into the Universe and the realm of the company.”

728. “In your career, to walk away champion of the Greatest Royal Rumble would be something people will take with them for a lifetime.”

729. “For me, if you are not in it to be champion, you shouldn't be in it at all.”

730. “I've been champion of every organization that I've worked for. I'm something extraordinary.”

731. “Johnny Nitro was an homage to Eric Bischoff, who, I was his apprentice at the time. I liked that name. Basically, Vince McMahon thought that 'Nitro' reminded him of WCW, and when I became the ECW Champion, like, he had a couple times mentioned to me, 'If you're going to be a real star, you need a real name.'”

732. “My dad used to be a Greco-Roman wrestler, and he was Norwegian champion six years on the bounce from 1966 to 1971. But I never saw him wrestle. I've only read the clippings.”

733. “I was lucky to get good coaches and infrastructure that I needed. To become a champion, it is not just a few months' practice: it takes years to make a champion.”

734. “I focus on my opponents the same way whether they are a champion or not.”

735. “I tried all my life to be a champion.”

736. “I want to be the middleweight champion.”

737. “I'm a fan of Fedor, have been a fan since he was in PRIDE, a great champion, and since I like to challenge myself, new challenges, that was one of the offers that came with my move to Bellator. Of course fighting Fedor would be an honor, a dream.”

738. “It's a great feeling to be champion of Spain.”

739. “I want to be champion.”

740. “I had a wonderful time in Spain. I had the pleasure of being a league champion twice in a row and playing for a big club like Real Madrid, which gave me a higher profile.”

741. “It's not been a bad life, and I do know that I could never have been a world champion. All I ever wanted to do was be the best I could with what I had, which wasn't very much, really. And that's what I think I did.”

742. “Wrestling isn't real. The falls hurt, sometimes you get punches in the face, but it's not real. It's propaganda. Propaganda makes you the giant and me the small guy. Propaganda makes me the champion and makes you unworthy of a title shot.”

743. “I take that stage, and I'm the same guy backstage as I am on the stage. And you know what that guy is. That guy is a star. That guy is a champion. That guy is the guy that put '205 Live' on the map.”

744. “There's no one in the division that can beat me; not even the champion can beat me.”

745. “I still have to unify my division and basically become the undefeated welterweight champion of the world. I can't lose. It is more added pressure, but it does make me work harder and keeps me more focused.”

746. “I want to stay active and busy. I don't just want to fight a no-name opponent. I want a decent name or a big name or a world champion, somebody who is going to challenge me. That's just it.”

747. “When I become the undisputed champion of the world, then I'll move up to 154.”

748. “I want to be the undisputed champion of the world.”

749. “I don't think there's any extra pressure fighting in my hometown. It's just added motivation. Real pressure was fighting against 30,000 fans in the champion's hometown for my first title against Kell Brook.”

750. “Of course my goal is to be the champion, and of course I want revenge with Amanda because I feel much stronger, and I know next time it will be a totally different result of the fight.”

751. “I go to bed dreaming, thinking that I want to be the best in the octagon and be a champion.”

752. “I became the European amateur champion in Liverpool back in 2008. I visited the Beatles museum, and after the final, I went to a drum and bass disco.”

753. “In the beginning, somebody told me there was a record in the cruiserweight division where Evander Holyfield became the champion. I thought about that, and I told my team, 'Let's make our own history, our own record, to beat Holyfield's record.'”

754. “I have nothing bad to say about Briedis. His style is a bit boring, but I respect him. Briedis is a world champion, so he has to be good.”

755. “Becoming the heavyweight champion is not what I'm dreaming of - it's my goal. It's what I'm planning to do.”

756. “I do want to look my best - I do want to be at my best - 'cause I do want to be WWE Champion. I do want to be on top.”

757. “Being the United States champion, it makes me elevate the title even more because, at the end of the day, that is what I wanna do. I wanna elevate the title, whether it be the world championship, the universal championship, any of these titles.”

758. “Becoming heavyweight champion and holding the top title is on my bucket list. That spot is always getting tighter and tighter, but why not? A man can always dream.”

759. “Shinsuke, as champion, wasn't even doing anything and wasn't defending it and was hiding all the time.”

760. “I am very, very proud of being United States Champion and defending it.”

761. “I have the most loyal fans that have been with me since I was 19 years old, when I was just a young guy becoming a world champion.”

762. “I was the youngest champion of the UFC.”

763. “I want to be NXT Women's Champion.”

764. “I think you can look good and still be a champion and still fight and still be the best at what I do.”

765. “I want to make history and be the first-ever SmackDown Women's Champion, and whatever I have to do to make that happen, I'm going to do it.”

766. “I won Money in the Bank twice, and then I cashed it in to become Champion. I was Champion. No one can ever take that away from me.”

767. “What I've learned in life is that you can't always win, especially in sport, but you can be a true champion for everything you did to get there.”

768. “Players talk about wanting to win and wanting to be a champion, but ultimately, they want to do it on their own terms.”

769. “But when it comes down to it, I'm a guy who feels like I should be a champion in NXT.”

770. “Being the first-ever three-time ROH world champion is pretty surreal.”

771. “Why Galatasaray and not Liverpool? Because I am a winner - I play for prizes - so I went to Galatasaray because I thought that I would win more at Galatasaray and be champion than at Liverpool, and I think afterwards that I made the right choice.”

772. “Going from a two-year-old Polish boy, who practically came to Germany with nothing more than a football under his arm, to a world champion - it's more than I could have ever imagined.”

773. “Going to places like Chicago and New York as the champion is kind of what was really special for me.”

774. “I love being the NXT Women's Champion.”

775. “Of course I want to be champion because that means you're the best, but I just love wrestling, and if I can have good matches week in and week out, that would make me happy.”

776. “My goal is to be the women's champion, to main event on a regular basis, to be at 'WrestleMania.'”

777. “I was champion for Monaco and had planned a five-day vacation with my friends in Palma de Mallorca. On the second day, I get a phone call from Jorge Mendes with the news of the Manchester City proposal.”

778. “It was a great ride, 10-time world tag team champion with my brother and then to work with Sheri Martell back in the days, you know, a dream come true.”

779. “There was a question in my mind, because I am black, if the fans would accept a black world champion. 'Bash at the Bash' was a topsy-turvy night. Finally, when the 1-2-3 came, the fans erupted. All my questions were answered; they really did want to see me win.”

780. “Vince Russo stuck up for me in WCW when it came down to who should be world champ. From what I've heard, there was a meeting, and Russo stood up for me. I would not be six-time world champion if it were not for Vince Russo. I would not even be one-time world champion if it weren't for Vince Russo.”

781. “It's no easy job being a World Heavyweight Champion; these guys like Cena, Sheamus, these guys are modeled around that and are champs for a reason.”

782. “I want to be World Heavyweight Champion, but unfortunately, that didn't happen.”

783. “When I decided to become a bodybuilder, I actually marked down a date. It was Oct. 8, 2002. The rest is pretty much history. It was an amazing feeling to know that I had the potential to become a champion.”

784. “We always called ourselves Divas. I came in through Diva Search. I was a Divas Champion. I always felt like it had this negative feeling to it because a Diva is so much more high maintenance, and that's the last thing we women wrestlers are.”

785. “My sister is an amazing champion; she's the Fearless Champion, and I couldn't be more proud to be by her side.”

786. “I champion a real campaign to tackle the rampant corruption that is draining Saudi resources, both financial and human.”

787. “I would like to be the youngest UFC world champion. I believe I can accomplish that.”

788. “I'm training to be the champion. I become the champion of whatever I put my mind to, so I believe I will be the champion. I think the UFC will be able to realize that, and we'll see what they say.”

789. “I think that every single fight you have is to prove yourself. Even if you're the world champion, the UFC champion of the world, you're still proving yourself; people are coming to beat you.”

790. “Mr. Faber is a huge role model. He's a UFC Hall of Famer. He's such a driven person and a champion.”

791. “My victory against Venus was the most special. She's is a multi grand slam champion; her sister is Serena Williams. I was like, 'What is going on?' I broke her five times in a row. She is one of the best servers in the game.”

792. “I was playing 25Ks in Japan, and now I'm the… champion of Indian Wells. It's crazy.”

793. “I'd like to be a tag titleholder, I'd like to be the WWE champion, but more than anything, I want to make guys leaders.”

794. “You can't be a champion and look like a bum. You have to look, and be, the part. It's not just because it's required of your job, but is important to how you hold yourself.”

795. “To be a world champion from Oklahoma is something that really pushes me.”

796. “I really believe if I put my mind in the right place, if I train very hard, if I have good support by my side, I can be the champion again and stay there for a long time.”

797. “When you become the champion, you become a target.”

798. “It's my biggest goal to become champion. I think it's everybody's goal here in the UFC.”

799. “Daniel Cormier is a different champion. He has achieved some amazing things in his career, and for me, it would be very nice to be facing him.”

800. “What's the point of fighting in the UFC if it isn't to become the champion?”

801. “It was a pleasure to share the court with Serena; she's such a champion.”

802. “If anyone understands the enormous mountain that cruiserweights like myself have to climb, it's WWE champion Daniel Bryan - who not only climbed that mountain but now stands atop it.”

803. “When I first came in, I won a world championship pretty fast. Then I worked with John Morrison and Daniel Bryan, became King of the Ring, went back to 'SmackDown,' became the world champion again, won the Rumble, did a lot of things, went away after an injury.”

804. “I'd love to become Intercontinental Champion.”

805. “My heart was bursting with pride the night I fought Steve Robinson in Wales, and I made the champion look like the challenger.”

806. “When you are challenging for the world title, you've got to go into the lion's den to try and rip that belt away from the champion.”

807. “I want the chance to show Barrera and the world that I am a true champion.”

808. “That's what a true professional is - a true world champion, so to everybody out there listening, especially the fighters that want to fight me… they'll get knocked out, sparko.”

809. “I made a prediction when I was 11 that I would be world champion by the time I was 21, and I did it.”

810. “Being a fighter is no joke. Year in and year out. Especially as a world champion. All eyes are on you, and you can't go where you want, eat what you want.”

811. “At 19, I was European champion, and at 21, I was world champion. Let's just hope Amir Khan can follow in the same footsteps. I believe he can do it 100%; he's a fantastic talent.”

812. “To be a great champion, you have to believe that you are the best, and if you aren't, then you have to act as though you are.”

813. “To score in the World Cup final is not a small story, of course. Every footballer dreams of it: first to become a world champion and then, even better, to score in the final. This happened to me, and I'm glad.”

814. “I am no champion, no great name, just a small actor who loves working for cinema.”

815. “All I know is that Stipe gave me inspiration because if Stipe can be that UFC champion, and they actually gave him a title shot, then I'm like, 'Ah, I do have a chance.'”

816. “The thing is that anybody in the heavyweight division can be champion any day just because of one punch.”

817. “For me, it doesn't matter if you are fighting a world champion or not.”

818. “My ultimate dream is just to become world champion, and not only once. So that's my dream, and it doesn't matter with which team it is.”

819. “Besides being a national level basketball champion, I have played a lot of other sports like volleyball, badminton, kho-kho, and kabbadi.”

820. “You get these young kids who are training their whole life to go to the Olympics. To go there and not fight someone else like them but fight someone who has might won an Olympics before, been a world champion, and is just coming back to fight some kids, I think is insane.”

821. “When I first went to Fitzroy Lodge, I said I was going to be heavyweight champion of the world and retire when I was 30. This is when I was 10.”

822. “I always told everyone I'd be heavyweight champion of the world one day. They'd say, 'All right, whatever.' I said, 'OK, you'll see.'”

823. “To me, being heavyweight world champion and Olympic sprint champion are the two greatest prizes in sport.”

824. “Being the longest-reigning champion isn't that big a deal to me because records are made to be broken.”

825. “I've already proved I have what it takes to be the champion. I'm right there.”

826. “It's my job to show up, make weight, and prepare to be a world champion if that opportunity presents itself.”

827. “Some guys just like being a fighter, and they live in that world, but I got into this to be champion.”

828. “The goal of this, I would like to think, for everybody, is to become champion.”

829. “When Vince McMahon said I was going to be a future world champion, he didn't say when.”

830. “Planned Parenthood has consistently claimed to 'care' for women 'no matter what' and champion 'women's rights' - yet they frantically silence any woman who thinks women deserve better than Planned Parenthood.”

831. “Being the champion and getting a unification fight in your house gives you certain advantages.”

832. “I don't want to lose to an average champion. I want to lose to a great champion.”

833. “People view you differently when you're a world champion.”

834. “With persistence, dedication, and especially with the hand of God, I came to be recognized as the best player in the world, world champion, among many other important titles in the history of football.”

835. “It's impossible to describe Messi. I like him so much, and I always say I feel so sad because he never won the World Cup with Argentina. It is an award he deserves because a world-class player like him must be a world champion.”

836. “I never really thought about the fact I wasn't world champion. It's all fake, so having a belt really means having extra weight in your luggage.”

837. “If you look at the Intercontinental Champion, historically, that has always belonged to the best of the best in-ring talent, the best wrestler, whatever you want to call it, that came out night after night, produced night after night - and that will be me.”

838. “Of course, to be WWE world champion is definitely on my list. Anybody who is not reaching for that proverbial brass ring is doing something wrong if they're in the WWE.”

839. “My dream would be fighting against whoever the WWE World Heavyweight Champion was at WrestleMania.”

840. “Austin Aries is a guy that has been the longest-reigning 'X Division' champion, has proven himself all over the world before he even got to TNA, and is well-respected in the industry, so I think he's a guy to look out for and I look forward to working with.”

841. “I got into this business for one reason, and I stayed in this business for one reason: To be the World Heavyweight Champion. I think if you are in professional wrestling, and you don't have that dream or aspire to be the best and carry that World Heavyweight Championship, then you are in the wrong business.”

842. “Being in the WWE is special; NXT was a great experience: being the champion and the face of the company was amazing.”

843. “I'd like to go to NXT, be NXT Champion.”

844. “For me, back in Sydney, it was just being there and going out and beating Alexander Karelin, 13-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist. It was everything for me.”

845. “I would mark 2015 down as the best year of my life. Now, I beat a couple of legends, became World Heavyweight Champion, ascended to the very top of the industry; I got two cats - that was a big deal in 2015.”

846. “I have no desire to leave New Day. We can pursue a singles title while being together. Besides, if you have two friends willing to help you, that's gonna make it easier for you to become a singles champion.”

847. “Honestly, I've always loved having tag teams since I was little, so I've always kind of been focused on wanting to be a tag team champion.”

848. “I want to be Universal Champion.”

849. “You may score 50 points and grab 40 rebounds and have 30 assists, but if I don't make the free throws at the end of the game, and we lose, does that make you not a champion?”

850. “The reason Tommaso Ciampa is NXT champion is because of me. I admitted that, and it's my mistake to fix.”

851. “I'm an NXT Superstar and the current NXT Champion.”

852. “From the first day I got signed to WWE, being the champion was always my number one goal, and after years of consistent hard work both mentally and physically, ups and downs, I was finally in that moment I had dreamt and thought about so much!”

853. “Why call out the champion in my first title defense? Because that's who Henry Cejudo is.”

854. “Will I become a UFC champion some day? I know I will.”

855. “My goal is to become a world champion.”

856. “I have a purpose and a meaning in life, and I have to fulfill that. Being a champion is great, but more importantly than that, you get to be an inspiration and a role model to other people.”

857. “I debuted in WWE right around the time when the 'Attitude Era' ended and WWE programming switched to Parental Guidance. Back then, we had one champion, and if you weren't the champion or the challenger, securing television time was often challenging.”

858. “It is my goal to be world champion.”

859. “There's guys who train hard. There's guys who believe they're real tough. But there's only a certain amount of guys who believe - like, really believe - they should be the champion. I know I have that mentality, and I know other guys who have that mentality.”

860. “I was 133-pounder all through college, and that's probably my natural fighting weight, but if it isn't broken, why fix it? I've been a champion at 145.”

861. “I knew I was a world champion and a top contender at the highest level for over a decade, but I think I'll be remembered as somebody that was an ambassador for the sport, someone who helped build something bigger than myself, and also for the team I've been able to build.”

862. “Jens Pulver was a former UFC champion. He's a guy who I followed and looked up to. It was my first big fight in the Sacramento arena.”

863. “The Jens Pulver fight was one that was on a massive level: I was a world champion fighting a former world champion, and a guy that I looked up to. We had a great fight.”

864. “Conservatives are often fond of La Rochefoucauld's famous aphorism that 'Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue,' and so tend to downplay hypocrisy as a sin. But in the marketplace of ideas they champion, hypocrisy may yet turn out to be the deadliest - or costliest - of sins.”

865. “I remember my first World Championships. I got zero turns, and I got turned multiple times, and I was still a World Champion.”

866. “It's one thing to never accomplish anything. You start from the bottom, you remain at the bottom, and all you know is the bottom. When you start at the bottom and you get to the top, and you feel the success and the notoriety and the recognition from being the champion, and you go back to losing, that's a tough place to be in.”

867. “It's harder to be a dad than an Olympic champion.”

868. “Tom Brady is Tom Brady. He was a sixth-round draft pick. A lot of people passed up on him. He's a Super Bowl Champion, Super Bowl MVP. He's been in a bunch of Super Bowls, and he could care less about all of that. He just cares about winning the next game.”

869. “Even though I say to myself that I was seven-times World Champion, the voice in my head says, 'You can't play this shot.' It's completely mental - quite literally. My confidence is sapped every time this happens.”

870. “Maybe I wish I could be out there on the big occasions playing like I did at my peak, but I certainly don't miss the six and seven hours a day practice that went hand in hand with being world champion in the nineties - or losing to guys knowing that it would never have happened when I was at my best.”

871. “We had nothing, no money, when I was young. We lived in a council house. My dad struggled; my mum struggled. But that made me what I am. If I had everything on a plate from the start, maybe I would not have been a champion for 11 years.”

872. “Fighters never realise when it is time to walk away. They can't leave the buzz and adoration that surrounds being champion.”

873. “When I was 14, I told my careers adviser that I was going to be a world champion boxer. Of course she laughed.”

874. “You think that after becoming world champion, you're going to be a massive superstar with lots of lucrative bouts against great fighters, but that never materialised for me.”

875. “When I was about 12, I realised I wasn't going to make it as a top footballer, but I won my first British ABA title at 13. From then on, I wanted to be a world champion.”

876. “To win the four major title belts, to be the unbeaten champion and 10 years a champion - it's amazing. I'm so proud.”

877. “There is a world of difference between being a reality TV star and a world champion boxer.”

878. “I didn't get into MMA because I wanted to be UFC champion. That wasn't my motivation.”

879. “I wanted to set new goals, because if you say, 'Oh, I'm world champion,' you don't grow, and you don't keep your level.”

880. “I didn't think every day, 'I'm world champion, I'm world champion,' not at all.”

881. “I'm a worrier, an overthinker, and - if it's your type of thing - a 3x WNBA champion.”

882. “Antonio Pena, the founder of AAA, and I worked together in 2002/2003. I have worked with the Pena family for years. I am the longest-reigning non-Mexican Mega Champion.”

883. “It is not normal that one team dominates for 20 years in a row as the champion.”

884. “For me, I am very much a champion of home cooking and home cooks.”

885. “I could be a world champion.”

886. “He's a great champion. I can tell you that I was amazed by Drogba - he's a great person.”

887. “I've always wanted to become a grand-slam champion and to become the best in the world. Without that, the victories aren't as sweet or the defeats as motivating.”

888. “I had a taste of a championship in San Antonio, and that was big for me. I cried when we won, and I hadn't cried in 10 years before that. It felt good, everything I'd been through, to say I was the champion at the end of the year.”

889. “My goals in the future is to not just be in Formula 1. I want to be really successful, World Champion, though I guess this is like everyone! But that is what I'm targeting.”

890. “I think the Divas Champion is the perfect combination of athleticism, beauty and brawn.”

891. “Sure, Maryse is the Divas Champion, but I find it no coincidence that she supposedly got 'hurt' the week after she stole my title.”

892. “The rise of populism has steadily coalesced movements of millions of people around its divisive us-against-them rhetoric, motivating so many more people to become active political campaigners and party members to champion the case for liberal democracy.”

893. “We champion freedom - but Brexit will mean the next generation is less free to live, work and love across Europe.”

894. “Since I've lived in Barcelona, I've played a bit of padel, so maybe I'll become World Champion at that - joking, of course!”

895. “That feeling of being the NBA Champion is really unparalleled, because you're the best in the world. Without question. How many people can say that in any profession?”

896. “Mesut is a player that has been through a lot in his career through loads of ups and downs, but most of all he's a born champion and he's a player who has so many records in the world of football, so he's a player that is an example for everyone.”

897. “This is the city of the underdog champion, so they want to see the next person out of their city blowing up and making I feel like, man, Atlanta's a big city, but it's so small.”

898. “You wanna champion someone from your city and it blows it up.”

899. “I can't explain it, but from the first day I stepped into a wrestling ring, I knew that one day I was going to be a big superstar. I knew that one day I would be the NWA World Heavyweight Champion like my hero, Lou Thesz.”

900. “A guy like AJ Styles is obviously a great talent and he's going to go out there and put on a performance that's befitting of a man who is the World Champion.”

901. “I'm interested to work with Lucha Underground and as champion that would put me in the mix to work with them.”

902. “As far as being the longest-reigning X Division champion, it's a pretty remarkable achievement, due to all the men who have held it over the years.”

903. “I was the X-Division champion and competing against guys mostly my size, and I dominated them.”

904. “Before I was a champion, I failed, and I was afraid.”

905. “A minister is supposed to be there to remind his permanent officials that they work for the rest of us. If, instead, he becomes the cabinet champion and public spokesman for his department, democracy is vitiated.”

906. “My friends would say I'm not the person to go to for tea, a cuddle and sympathy, because I can't deliver. But if you want something sorted out and need a champion who will stand by your side, that is me.”

907. “In 1974 or 1975, if someone had told me I was going to be an Olympic champion, I would not have believed it. Even in 1976, I'd not have believed it.”

908. “It takes a lot of discipline to become and stay champion. It also takes a lot of discipline to stop while still feeling that you're in the best physical and mental shape of your life, but I've always planned to leave the sport when I'm at the top and in good health.”

909. “When you're champion, you feel you're the center of the world.”

910. “I know I put forth an effort to try to build a championship team and to be a champion. And it hasn't worked out.”

911. “My purpose is to unite people, to bring us together. And above all, to be a champion for justice and a vehement opponent of oppression and justice.”

912. “In 2017, I boxed in front of a home crowd in Sheffield and became the WBA super-middleweight world champion. After four attempts I had finally fulfilled my childhood dream, and the experience was as great as I had always imagined it would be. It was without doubt the best moment of my career.”

913. “You decide whether you want to box on, or not. And for me of course, I wasn't going to be leaving the business until becoming a world champion, and defending it numerous times.”

914. “When I become world champion, what do I need? I need opponents, I need someone to pick a venue, negotiate a date, and I need a promoter.”

915. “Carl Froch is a strong, seasoned world champion and there's no quit in him.”

916. “I got to world champion, No 1-rated fighter in the division and managed to earn from the defences.”

917. “I have always wanted to be European champion, because it is a fantastic title and so many great boxers have held the belt over the years.”

918. “Once I'm world Champion we can think about what fights are fun rather than fights that need to take place.”

919. “There are plenty of massive fights out there for me, I know that, but the goals always going to become world champion.”

920. “If I become a European champion, I don't care whether I have absolute recognition or not.”

921. “I want to be the true champion of the people, and I take a lot of pride in having that role.”

922. “People are entitled to their own opinion as far as what a WWE Champion should be, but the fact is that I am WWE Champion and that's a fact. It is what it is.”

923. “For me to be the first African-born WWE Champion is incredible because now, people who look like myself can look at TV and see on WWE television that anything is possible because I'm doing it.”

924. “It took me 11 years to get a shot at the WWE championship; not just to win it, but just to get a shot, but luckily I was able to capitalize on that and become WWE champion, but if I had quit I wouldn't have been in that position.”

925. “My goal is to be the best champion possible and to do that I have to go against the best.”

926. “What I'm trying to do is reinvent what the face of a champion looks like. I'm out there trying to represent for the people who question whether they can become a champion or not.”

927. “I'm just so proud to be champion and to have the support of my peers and my fans.”

928. “Never in my wildest dreams did I set the goal to be the longest-reigning tag-team champion.”

929. “Ultimately you play the game to be the champion, to be remembered.”

930. “To play the role of a sports champion, I first needed to break my body and become supremely fit to convincingly look like a college athlete. Along with acing sporting disciplines, I also had to balance the emotional graph and light heartedness of a college drama while competing in varying sport! Combining the two drained a lot out of me.”

931. “The record books might not indicate it, but if you ask me, Chael is a former WEC light heavyweight champion.”

932. “Usually, you become a star and then a champion.”

933. “Israel Adesanya will not be Eugene Bareman's final UFC champion.”

934. “I mean I had accomplished a goal I had set at 10 years old, I told my mom at that time that I was going to be a wrestler one day, and I was going to be champion, everyone looked at me like I was crazy.”

935. “I'm a champion, I have to defend this belt.”

936. “I want to retire as champion, and I will make that happen.”

937. “I'm not running from anyone, I'm the champion and I can choose who I'm going to fight.”

938. “I have always had a great deal of respect and admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a true humanitarian and champion of Women's Rights and Civil Rights.”

939. “There aren't 32 of them in the world that I think can be quarterbacks of Super Bowl champion teams. Supply is short.”

940. “When you think about the progress and the progressive issues we are tackling and solving in Miramar, I'm looking to take these issues nationally because the American people need someone who can champion these issues for them.”

941. “Swimming is definitely a big passion that I have, but I was a champion for the butterfly and the free style and stuff. It was a hard decision if I wanted to move to the U.S. to get into music, but I was grateful that I had two choices and many things to do.”

942. “Me becoming the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world, it's a blessing.”

943. “My goal is to become the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world.”

944. “Whaddya know? I'm the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world.”

945. “I need to remain humble, stay disciplined and keep training. That's how I will continue to be a champion.”

946. “I dreamed of becoming a world champion, I dreamed of becoming France's champion.”

947. “When I hear President Trump suggest policy ideas that run counter to American ideals, I speak out. In the same vein, when my constituents disagree with me, I welcome and champion their right to speak out.”

948. “I want to be MVP. I want to be a champion. There's always something that you want.”

949. “Ancelotti is a champion, in all respects.”

950. “Discovering that my great-great-grandfather Harry was Australasian clog-dancing champion in 1871 was extraordinary.”

951. “I've always been a champion of love.”

952. “I think Cormier's one of the greatest to ever do it. Two-time, two-division world champion.”

953. “When you talk about somebody being your world champion, you couldn't ask for a better human being than Daniel Cormier.”

954. “The only reason I want to climb up the rankings - beating the champion and beating guys in the top five - those are the guys that get the endorsements and get the most money and get paid the most. That's the only reason why.”

955. “100 Muay Thai, boxing, and kickboxing fights. Six times world Muay Thai champion, five times European Muay Thai champion, very dominant UFC champion for three years. I know my legacy. They can say whatever they want to, but I'm huge.”

956. “I want to be the first champion of the 125-pound division.”

957. “If I would become a champion at 125, I will jump between 115 and 125.”

958. “I'm happy to be part of the UFC and I'm happy to be the first Polish champion and the first European women's champion.”

959. “I'm Joanna Champion.”

960. “I'm a champion and I fight like a champion with or without that belt.”

961. “My mom was a two-time Olympic champion and when I start to play hockey I dream that if I have chance to play for my country I will do it every time they ask me.”

962. “I work better under pressure. I was the local badminton champion when I was a kid, and there was another girl who used to thrash me for the five days leading up to the tournament and then I would just nail her to the floor in the competition.”

963. “Viktor Postol is a great champion and he was dodged for a reason, but I ain't the type to duck and dodge anyone.”

964. “I never put it to where I say, 'I'm just this big pay-per-view star,' or 'I wanna be the No. 1 pay-per-view star that got all the ratings.' No, I was just like, 'I'm gonna be a world champion. That's what I'm gonna be.'”

965. “Pacquiao earned the right to go out how he wants to go out. He had fought everybody there is to fight - when they was there to fight. He fought all the top names. Eight-division champion. He accomplished everything there is to do in the sport of boxing.”

966. “My first goal was to become world champion and I did that against Ricky Burns at 135. Once I conquered that, I set myself another goal and another goal.”

967. “When you start boxing when you're 7 years old, that's your dream, to become world champion, and after that you want to become something bigger than world champion.”

968. “I want wins and losses to matter. That is the point of wrestling, everyone is striving to be a champion and your stature in the company is marked by your win-loss record.”

969. “My goals for my career are a couple of Pro Bowls, a Super Bowl. I never won a championship in college or high school, so I want to be a Super Bowl champion.”

970. “I believe I'm a real champion for women.”

971. “I want people to say that Jack Swagger/Jake Hager is a world champion in MMA and in pro wrestling.”

972. “Anyone that holds a championship you are on a list of a very few people that have had that special honor, and it is really incredible to say that no matter what you say about my wrestling career I was a World Heavyweight Champion and you can't take that away from me.”

973. “I'm the people's champion.”

974. “I respect Haye as a man and for being a former two-weight world champion. But not as a boxer.”

975. “The goal is to be heavyweight champion of the world.”

976. “I grew up watching the careers of Tyson and Bowe. I always wanted to follow in their footsteps in becoming a world champion. But I've always been my own man.”

977. “When I'm champion, I'll fight the best because I am the best.”

978. “When I started fighting I've always thought about being a UFC champion.”

979. “Daniel Crawford, who was BAMMA featherweight champion, used to train with me.”

980. “I'm not bothered about where I'm ranked in the world. I'm just worried about fighting the best people in the world and being a natural, original champion.”

981. “Every woman on the NXT roster learns from me every day, and they will continue to learn from me when I become their champion.”

982. “I had my very first match against NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks three weeks after I signed. I'm quite proud of that, but I can't explain how nervous I was.”

983. “It was very hard when the newspapers were chasing me. It was also very weird. I know I'd just become world champion but shouldn't they be following someone who has done something wrong?”

984. “I'm two times world champion, I've got nothing to prove to anybody.”

985. “Everybody gets a bit tired now and then but that's what being a world champion is all about. You just deal with it.”

986. “We all want to be champion.”

987. “Divas who say they don't want to be champion are lying.”

988. “There is an awful lot you can accomplish by being a vocal champion for a certain cause.”

989. “I'm ready to be the underdog and challenge the champion. I'm ready to go out there and prove people wrong.”

990. “Honestly, I know rematches are always nice, but me beating the champion of my weight class in a competitive fight is nice, too.”

991. “You're either a champion or you're not a champion.”

992. “I'm a four-time champion. The second female to ever compete in the Royal Rumble, amongst many, many other accolades.”

993. “When you look at me see the father, the awesome dad, the author, film director, business owner, champion, friend, Hufflepuff beast.”

994. “Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.”

995. “You will rarely get introduced as the two-time Pocono champion. You will certainly be introduced as the two-time Daytona 500 champion.”

996. “I haven't set myself any goals or targets because I am taking each day as it comes. But who is to say that I can't be a world champion, or do anything that I put my mind to?”

997. “My brother was an equestrian champion.”

998. “I've proven myself a champion of workers' rights, particularly teachers.”

999. “Working class men and women deserve a champion. They're tired of people just telling them what they want to hear to get elected and they don't necessarily follow through.”

1000. “When I was 30 I became world champion and that's when I started to make a living.”