<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" As the star of the New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony owns Madison Square Garden to the tune of more than 28 points a night. Which is probably why it&amp;#039;s okay for him to erect a boxing ring on top of the world-famous arena to spar with some of the city&amp;#039;s top amateur boxers on his off day. We talked to Anthony yesterday between rounds helping to promote Degree Men&amp;#039;s DO:MORE campaign about his new favorite sport and how it&amp;#039;s helping him lead the Knicks to the playoffs.  ESQUIRE.COM: How&amp;#039;d you get involved in boxing? CARMELO ANTHONY: Being born Brooklyn, I&amp;#039;ve always been a fan of boxing. It&amp;#039;s in our blood. But as I got older, it was a matter of really digging into how hard it is and how much time and conditioning it takes for a boxer to be in top notch shape to only fight for 45 or 48 minutes. It&amp;#039;s unbelievable.  ESQ: But you&amp;#039;re going about 45 to 48 minutes a night for the Knicks. CA: Yeah, but it&amp;#039;s different. It&amp;#039;s a different workout. You can&amp;#039;t really compare the two, you just have to go through the experience to understand it. ESQ: How does boxing help you on the basketball court? CA: It helps my hand-eye coordination, my stamina, my footwork, and it gives me that competitive edge and drive. And in the ring it&amp;#039;s mano-a-mano. So it helps you build that arrogance, that cockiness, that confidence in yourself that the man that stands in front of you isn&amp;#039;t going to beat you, and that translates to the court.  ESQ: Why&amp;#039;d you get involved with the Do: More? CA: It&amp;#039;s something I&amp;#039;ve always lived by, by being more. Now with the Do: More campaign with Degree Men I&amp;#039;m just showing people different aspects of me. I&amp;#039;m a human being and I do more than just play basketball. So now I&amp;#039;m riding bikes and running on the track, but boxing is my main thing.  ESQ: Would you ever square off against a pro? CA: No way. I mean, that&amp;#039;s something that they do. I&amp;#039;m just doing more by doing something other than basketball, but they live that. So i&amp;#039;m intrigued by how hard they work and the amount of effort and time it takes to get into top notch shape.  ESQ: Who are some of the boxers you try to emulate? CA: The heavyweights were real big when I was growing up: Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Tyson. When Tyson lost to Douglas, it was like the world came crashing down. But as I got older and started studying the sport a lot more, Muhammad Ali became by far my favorite as a boxer and as a person. He&amp;#039;s my idol.  ESQ: But you wouldn&amp;#039;t go three minutes with him in his prime? CA: Not at all. Nothing could convince to do that.  ESQ: What about some of the other NBA stars? CA: Oh yeah, for sure. If they want to come workout with me we&amp;#039;d get some rounds in. It&amp;#039;d be fun to get some of those guys into this world.  Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a21247/carmelo-anthony-on-boxing/>