Richy Horsley Quotes

“I had a burning desire in me to win and started to get him on the back foot. I was looking for that one special shot when I put him down with the famous Horsley Muckspreader right hand… an unstoppable force. Incredibly, he got up and took the count and the ref waved us to continue.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Eventually, it was around midnight, I was told to get ready and put the gloves on. I felt physically depleted and drained of energy, and had no get-up-and-go left in me. I wanted a bed badly, not a boxing ring.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“The crowd started cheering as soon as they seen him, he was one of them, a local lad from Lancashire. In the first round, I tried to put him away but my punches had nothing in them, I might as well as been hitting thin air. It was then that I knew I had to really dig deep if I wanted to hear the final bell; I threw a clever little corkscrew right. A great shot, but ineffective unless it hits with some vigour, which it didn’t!”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“The crowd were totally behind him and it spurred him on, I was right in the heat of battle. There was only one to win; I dug deep and summoned up every bit of strength, I had in me to put in to one punch to see if I could hit the jackpot. I drew him to the ropes and put everything in to a cracking right uppercut and just missed, bastard!”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“In the last round I was so wiped-out that for the first time in my life I tried to get disqualified. He was throwing punches non-stop and he was dangerous with those shots and becoming a little bit too cute for my liking. I backed to the ropes and catapulted off them and nutted him.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Everyone in the place seen me nut him apart from the ref, it caught him on the blind side. I tried to nut him on the eyebrow so it would split open, but I got him on the forehead. The crowd turned right against me, but I made it to the last bell and lost on a unanimous decision.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I must have been crazy for taking that fight, I should have told Anth to get on his bike, but what made it worse was I knew if I were in shape I’d have beaten him inside of two rounds. Some people reckon fighters must have a little madness in them, I reckon they might be right.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Another time, I was at the bar getting a drink and this geezer is stood at the bar with a ciggie in his mouth, trying his best to look rock hard. He takes a drag and points his finger in my face and drawls, ‘Don't I know you?’
He was looking snake-eyed at me like a typical big screen gangster.
I stood in front of him and drawled back, ‘I don’t know, but they call me Richy Horsley,’ and then bang, I batter him with a left hook that landed with a strange dull thud. Mr Movie Gangster was stood there leaning against the bar and staring out in to space, knocked out standing up.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“During the depression, people fought each other for boxes of groceries and if you were lucky you might get a few shillings for fighting six rounds. When Jack Johnson was World Heavyweight Champ, back in the early 1900s, Hartlepool had a brilliant boxer called Jasper Carter. People today will never have heard of him, but almost 100 years ago he put Hartlepool on the fistic map.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I went after him and picked him off with a right, like a predator and was all over him like a rash! I was in to him with a right hand lead and out to inflict pain, but it wasn’t all one-sided! This guy was on a wing and a prayer when he threw a chopping right hand that whizzed past me with him on the other end of it… I was blessed, or something!
I had to turn it on and step it up, because if he connected with one of those shots then I was chicken fodder! I could see that his wasted efforts were tiring him by the second. I boxed him from range and kept tying him up, I was now in to a rhythm, I swung lefts and rights, all of them smashing in to his head with an unrelenting ferocity.
By now his face was covered in blood and he was about to go down when the ref stepped in and stopped it. I won; I had defeated Goliath.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“He spouted out, ‘Richy, I’ve just been talking to a bloke from Blackpool on the phone, there’s a boxing show tomorrow night and they are desperate for a heavyweight. Will you fight?’
I retorted, ‘Are you joking. I haven’t trained for four months; I’ll be blowing after thirty seconds.’
He pleaded, ‘Howay, man. It’ll be a night out down Blackpool.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I’d only gone and whacked his front teeth out and they’d stuck in my hand, I still have the scar to this very day. A few weeks later, I got banged up for it; he never went to the police until two weeks later. Somebody had put him wise about getting compensation from the Criminal Injuries Board. Anyway, the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) kicked it in to touch as a ‘no go’ case.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“We were called to a pub that had our doormen on, we were told there was fighting. It was he, Big George, but he’d already left. We went in and the bouncers were smashed to bits, shirts ripped off, teeth knocked out, claret and glass everywhere. Single-handedly, George had demolished them, as if they were made out of cardboard.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Usually with a couple of these shots the word ‘Goodnight’ would show up on their forehead, but he was still on his feet, but backed up and then I battered him with a flurry of combinations: right, left, right, right, right and a sweet right hand and he went down. For good measure, I booted him in the head and turned around and walked fast in to the pub away from the scene.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“In a split second he went for me, he never tried to punch me though, he went to grab me so he could use his strength for some rough and tumble, but as fast as he came rushing at me, I equally as fast unleashed a furious right uppercut (if you can deliver a uppercut properly you’ll never go far wrong because when they land, your legs cave in) on to his chin and his legs went from under him like a baby deer. They say, the bigger you are, the harder you fall, that is correct! He hit the deck like a broken lift.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“After about five minutes had passed, I went outside and they’d gone. When I checked my hand to see if my knuckles were swelling or any bruising was coming up I got a shock, there was false tan on my knuckles! I still chuckle about that to this day.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Lee Duffy was a man apart and someone who only comes around once in a lifetime, a total one off. There have been a lot of things written about him in the press and it’s always been from the other side of the coin. There are always two sides to every story and Lee’s family have never fully told us their side. They are very distrustful of the press after Lee was made out to be some kind of monster.
If Lee had been born and bred in London, he would have been an icon.
He was Robin Hood, Dick Turpin and Muhammad Ali rolled into one.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“That was the trouble with working the doors, too many crybabies; you were always in a ‘no win’ situation.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I excused myself to the woman I was with and made my way over to these men. I stopped to ask my friend Buller to watch my back. The thing is, people like this can’t be talked to, and so I wasn’t going to mess around with this crazed windmill and his sidekick, Don Quixote.
I hit the mouthy crazed windmill with a thumping right, a left, right, smack on the chin; he fell apart and was out for the count before he hit the deck.
I turned to Don Quixote and off he shot like the Disney cartoon character of Speedy Gonzales.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Fear was keeping this loon going, as he was scrambling under the tables in this packed club, it was as if he was in a Carry On film and trying to hide from me. As the bouncers arrived, I was putting the boot in to the plonker without much success. He was like a bumblebee on speed!”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“He was very cock sure of himself. He came at me and threw a big slow right, but he was so slow that he had telegraphed it to me and I’m ready for it and block it. I put a couple of big jabs on him and he went down like the Titanic, maybe quicker.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“He lost a few teeth and wet himself in to the next century. I looked up at his mates and none of them would look me in the face.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“Thank God! He went down in front of the bar on the tiled floor. BANG! The fat bastard, he shattered both knees with the weight of him. My hands were in just a little bit of pain, but I was driven on to keep punching his fat head in by the gratifying squeals I was eliciting from him and, broken hands or not, with the coup de grace… I knocked him out.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“At first, we both miss a few sharp bursts of wild punches and then, BANG! I catch him with a full swing left hook and he goes down like a ferret down a hole after a rabbit. When that punch landed, I broke my hand, again, and simultaneously broke his jaw. I wonder if that is an entry into the Guinness Book of records?”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“When I got off him, I spat the blood that was swamping my mouth in to his face, I looked down at him and it really looked like he was dying… shit!
The ambulance arrived in about a minute and they got an oxygen mask straight on him and I could see the life draining out of him. You see, this is the problem; we are only human and flesh and blood.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“As they carried him out, one of his mates came back in and said to me, ‘Do it too me, go on, fucking try it with me.’
I obliged and I flattened him as well and he was laid out in the ambulance next to Big John heading for the casualty department.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I went for a private sitting with a clairvoyant and got some really good messages off him, but one thing that did frighten me was when he said, ‘I can see a lot of fist fighting with you.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“I started to turn my life around for the better and try to instil a bit of stability and balance back in to it and take a back seat to violence. I wanted to leave that part of my life behind. The leopard wanted to ditch its spots!”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“As they crept closer, I decided to make my move first and surprise them. I selected my prey, the biggest one! The reasoning behind this is that if you deck the largest and strongest one out of a group then it sends out a clear-cut message to the rest of them.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley

“After my victory at the Warriors 1, the self-proclaimed and well named Monarch of the Underworld, Dave Courtney, came up to me and commended me when he said, ‘Richy, you can hit, I’m fucking glad you’re not hitting me.’ The way Dave said it and the expression on his face made me laugh.”
― Stephen Richards, Born to Fight: The True Story of Richy Crazy Horse Horsley