| Sugar Ray Leonard Sugar Ray Leonard. For my generation he was the nearest thing to Sugar Ray Robinson you could get. Sugar Ray Robinson-lite? Sure, but then any boxer compared, pound-for pound, with the great sugarman is going to be 'lite'. Sugar Ray Leonard was the sweetman of the Sweet Science in the late 1970s & 1980s. No-one created the buzz he did in that time (Ali was past his best and it was a void as the world waited for Tyson); no-one razzled and dazzled like the man from Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The battles in the ring were huge both in and out of the ring. I mean really huge. Worldwide. Benítez, Duran, Hearns &, of course, Hagler. Did he win or was Hagler robbed? It was a debatable decision but just added to the legend of Sugar Ray Leonard. He beat everyone; he ducked no-one including the baddest man on the planet. I, for one, always preferred the 'Hitman' (Leonard himself conceded later that he felt he lost). Hearns was just an incredible force of nature, an exciting boxer every moment he was in the ring, who, in my opinion, wond the 2nd Leonrad fight. But you can't have anything but respect for Sugar Ray because the fights he took were the hardest he could take at the time. Sure, they were the money fights but everytime he went into the ring he was putting his 'legend' on the line. Boxing lost alot of its panache when he retired and I don't think boxing has recovered to this day. Real name: Ray Charles Leonard Height: 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Boxing record Medal record THE SUGAR: Sugar Ray Leonard frequently called himself simply "the champ". No false modesty there. The height of his boxing career was from the late 1970's through the 1980's (the usual crown in the jewels for boxing, the heavyweights, was a bit of a desert then: Ali was past his best and the world was waiting impatiently for a Tyson). Leonard's wins in this period are now part of boxing folklore: he fought athe best of the best including Wilfred Benitez (fought: once, win), Roberto Duran (fought three times: won 2, lost 1), Thomas Hearns (fought twice: 1 win, 1 draw), and in 1987 he came out of retirement for his famous and controversial upset of Marvin Hagler (Hagler was mugged and he didn't know anything about it until it was too late - saying that, Hagler had 12 rounds to knock him out, didn't do so as he couldn't catch him, and he must have known that if it was left to the judges and was a close decision there was a high chance he was going to lose). Outside of the ring, as per his excellent autobiography: The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring Ray Charles Leonard was named after his mother's favorite singer. He was the child of poor, hardworking parents. Ray was a quiet, introspective child. When he began to box at a club in suburban Maryland at the age of 14 he found his life's vocation. Success followed rapidly: Golden Gloves champion and in 1976, at the age of 20 the Golden Medal at the Olympics in Montreal. He bestowed upon himself the name "Sugar" after boxing's best ever pound-for-pound boxer (not my words but those of the great Joe Louis) Sugar Ray Robinson so he must have realised himself that he was, er, quite good. He was reluctant to turn pro at first (he has since cited family pressures as one of the reasons he did), and when he did he had 26 fights and 26 wins in the first three years culminating in the tough beating of Benitez at the tailend of 1979 for the WBC & The Ring Welterweight titles. He suffered a detached retina and retired but during his career came out of retirement four times. Perhaps his best decisions were having Angelo Dundee as his cornerman in his big fights and retaining manager and attorney, Mike Trainer. Leonard wasn't shafteed, in or outside of the ring. The legend was born. Dazzling sills in the ring with the heart of a lion. But outside hewas dependent upon the approval of others, egotistical, repeatedly unfaithful to his devoted wife and small children, and increasingly addicted to alcohol and substance abuse. There were two incidents of sexual abuse from older men that he suffered as an adolescent. His home was the ring or preparing for a fight - places he could escape everyday life. He studied boxing in a way only Mike Tyson would know.
On the way he lost a loving wife and two children, and nearly self-destructed with alcohol and drugs. After his divorce in the late 1980's he remarried Bernadette Robi, reduced his philandering and made progress in curing his drug and alcohol addictions. When he finally retired for good after losses to Terry Norris and Hector Camacho (the only time in his career he was knocked out), he began a career as a boxing analyst which was ideal for him as there are few within the sport better at conveying the intricacies of the sport than Leonard. Like John McEnroe with tennis, when he speaks you listen and learn. There are few anyway who can put into words the feelings we feel at what we see. Leonard can. Ditto the reason why he remains a highly sought motivational/inspirational speaker. Paul Page, December, 2012 FURTHER READING: Sugar Ray Leonard - The Big Fight: My Story |
, his personal life was as far removed from the smooth, clean-cut public appearance as can be: womanizing, alcoholism, and drug addiction.
