Fighters never realise when it is time to walk away. They can't leave the buzz and adoration that surrounds being champion.
It's one of the biggest disappointments of my boxing career, not going to the Olympics.
I appreciate what I've achieved, and nearly all of that is because of my dad. He pushed me to train harder than I would have done if he wasn't there to discipline me.
I can't understand it myself - how nervous I was when I took the floor for 'Strictly Come Dancing.' I walk out with 50,000 people gathered in the Millennium Stadium to fight Mikkel Kessler in the unification fight for the super middleweight division in 2007, and I feel great... and here I am, wearing tight pants and Cuban heels, and freaking out.
I was born in London but brought up in Wales from the age of two.
I remember every defeat I suffered as an amateur. They were rare enough to be burned into my brain, and that's why I can't bear the thought of losing.
We're only human, and fear can eat away at you the closer you get to a big fight.
If you know you're just fighting for the money and you're not fighting for the championship, you're going to lose, so I thought, 'It's time for me to quit.'
Promoting is a no-no - that's hard work. Training is a full-time job, but I don't have time to do that full-time. But managing is something I'll be good at.
I'm close to achieving something that very few boxers ever have - and that is to retire undefeated, like Rocky Marciano.
Why am I not a household name in Britain? Why have I not got the recognition I deserve after so long? I think the fact that none of my fights are seen on terrestrial television is significant but, other than that, I don't exactly know. I really don't.
When I was 14, I told my careers adviser that I was going to be a world champion boxer. Of course she laughed.
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.
I'm a boxer, and every fight could be my last. You just have to remember Michael Watson to know what boxing can do to you.
You have to try things in life.
My first boxing memory is watching Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard on television.
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.
Test match cricket - it's the most boring thing to watch. How they call themselves sportsmen I'll never know.
I cried watching 'Million Dollar Baby.' I'm a big baby, man.
I prayed before fights. Especially just before I got in to the ring. But I'd also have my iPod on, Prodigy and Linkin Park ripping through my ears.
