What Hemingway meant?

[virmos]

"I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy."
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

[sandyRoe]

He meant that his literary works were nowhere near as good as Tolstoys.

[Clanad]

Actually, the full text of the quote is: “Mr. Hemingway’s respect for Tolstoy is clear in his various comments (using one of his favorite metaphors) on which writers he has gotten into the ring with: “I started out very quietly and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and beat Mr. de Maupassant. I’ve fought two draws with Mr. Stendahl and I think I has an edge in the last one. But nobody’s going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I’m crazy or I keep getting better”.
(Source: “How Do You Like it Now Gentlemen?” interview with Lillian Ross in “Hemingway: A Collection of Critical Essays”).