"It's like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn't be a boxer, so I quit"
About this Quote
The phrasing does double work. “It’s like” keeps it casual, almost shrugging, as if he’s preempting the audience’s expectation that quitting requires a grand moral crisis. The “signs” stay conveniently vague, which lets listeners project whatever they want onto them: injuries, bad training, fear, family pressure, a dawning sense that the romance of boxing is mostly damage management. By refusing specifics, Martinez makes the exit feel both inevitable and oddly rational.
As an actor, he’s also slyly signaling something about identity. Boxing is often coded as authenticity: the “real” man’s craft. Martinez suggests the opposite - that reading the room, recognizing misfit, and choosing another lane is its own kind of self-knowledge. The subtext is career-adjacent: success isn’t always the result of bulldozing obstacles; sometimes it’s the wisdom to treat resistance as information, not a challenge to your ego.
Quote Details
| Topic | Quitting Job |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Martinez, Olivier. (2026, January 18). It's like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn't be a boxer, so I quit. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-like-all-the-signs-were-telling-me-that-i-13606/
Chicago Style
Martinez, Olivier. "It's like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn't be a boxer, so I quit." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-like-all-the-signs-were-telling-me-that-i-13606/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It's like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn't be a boxer, so I quit." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/its-like-all-the-signs-were-telling-me-that-i-13606/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.





