Sugar Ray Leonard

From Singing to Boxing

The future boxing champ was born Ray Charles Leonard on May 17, 1956, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. His parents, Getha and Cicero Leonard, had seven children. Leonard grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Palmer, Maryland.

His mother named him after the famous singer Ray Charles because she wanted him to become a singer. And he did have vocal talent: he sang in church with his two sisters, and congregants told Getha Leonard that her son sounded like rhythm-and-blues artist Sam Cooke.

By the time Leonard reached his early teens, his interests turned to boxing. During this period, Leonard, a quiet youngster, was living in Palmer, a racially mixed, lower-middle-class suburb of Baltimore. Two local volunteer boxing coaches recognized his natural talents and began training him. As a fighter, Leonard immediately demonstrated skill and finesse in the ring. Later, his smooth approach would contrast with that of the brawlers and sluggers he battled and surpass that of the other stylists he faced. Eventually, he would adopt the same "Sugar" nickname used by legendary boxer Ray Robinson, who is regarded by many as the most skillful technical fighter of all time.

Won Olympic Gold Medal

Only fourteen years old, Leonard entered the amateur boxing ranks and put together an outstanding record, winning 145 of 150 fights. In six years, he won two National Golden Glove championships (1973, 1974), two Amateur Athletic Union championships (1974, 1975), and a gold medal at the 1975 Pan American Games.

Leonard crowned the amateur phase of his career by winning a gold medal in the light welterweight class in the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal. It was a star-making turn. Leonard came into the final match as an underdog facing Cuban knockout specialist Andres Aldama. Even before the match began, Leonard won the hearts of the live crowd and a national television audience by displaying a picture of his son on the side of his boot. During the fight, Leonard, in dramatic fashion, overcame intense pain in both his hands to score a unanimous 5-0 decision.

Turned Pro

After winning the gold medal, Leonard announced his intentions to retire from boxing, claiming he had fulfilled his dream. However, it turned out to be the first of several premature retirements. Initially, Leonard wanted to make money from commercial endorsements and then attend Harvard to become a lawyer. But the plan collapsed when it was revealed that Juanita Wilkinson, the mother of his illegitimate son, had filed a paternity suit in an effort to get food stamps. It was a public relations disaster that killed any hopes for endorsement contracts. In addition, family bills were mounting due to his father's illness, so the 20-year-old Leonard, lured by a $500,000 offer from boxing promoters, decided to turn professional. Immediately aligning himself with the best people, he hired Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's former trainer, to be his boxing manager and attorney Mike Trainer to be his business manager.

In his first fight, televised live on February 5, 1977, Leonard defeated Luis Vega, a tough Puerto Rican boxer, in a six-round decision. It was the first of 25 straight victories for Leonard, who would go on to win a record-breaking six world titles in five weight classes in a career that featured some of the best fights in the history of sports: memorable matches against Wilfred Benetiz, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler.

Throughout his career, Leonard continually confounded doubters who did not think he could beat the likes of Duran, Hearns, or Hagler. He possessed speed, power, and skill, and he was also smart. He knew how to analyze opponents and then develop a strategy to defeat them. Though not a slugger, he was a dangerous boxing artist with fast hands. His quickness enabled him to deliver left hooks, jabs, uppercuts, and crosses with deadly accuracy. His skills coupled with his vibrant personality made him a bright star at a time when the sport needed a new one. The era of Muhammad Ali was coming to an end.

Comparisons to Ali were inevitable and applicable. Famed sportscaster Howard Cosell even called Leonard the "new Muhammad Ali." Like Ali before him, Leonard divided boxing fans into two camps: those who loved him and those that felt he was arrogant. (To some, taking the nickname of "Sugar Ray" seemed the height of hubris.) His followers claimed that Leonard's perceived arrogance was merely confidence because, like Ali before him, Leonard made good on his boasts. He fought in what has been deemed the greatest era in the history of boxing's welter-weight division and emerged as the best.

Won First Boxing Title

Leonard's two-year unbeaten streak of 25 matches (15 by knockout) earned him a title shot against reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion Wilfredo Benitez, who was also undefeated as a pro. On November 30, 1979, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Leonard scored a 15-round technical knockout (TKO) with only six seconds left in the fight. It was an impressive win. Benitez, a future boxing Hall of Famer, was one of the great defensive fighters of all time. The following year, Leonard married Wilkinson, the mother of his son.

Roberto Duran's "No Mas"

Leonard held the title less than seven months. He lost the belt in his second title defense, on June 20, 1980, when he went up against the tough Panamanian Roberto Duran in the first of their three classic matches. In front of a large crowd at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Duran scored a close but unanimous decision, handing Leonard the first loss of his professional career.

The fight, probably the most anticipated non-heavyweight bout in the history of the sport up to that time, was billed as "The Brawl in Montreal," as the fighters disliked each other intensely. Leading up to the match, Duran wickedly taunted Leonard, and boxing observers believed Duran's mental tactics greatly influenced the fight's outcome. Leonard surprised onlookers by abandoning his usually smooth approach and adopting Duran's rough style. The fighters went "toe to toe" in a slugfest, and in the second round Duran stunned Leonard with a left hook that almost dropped the champion. Afterward, the battle went back and forth over the course of 13 rounds, but Duran fought better. Leonard's heroic image was tarnished and his large ego bruised.

"The fight in Montreal was not a boxing match," Leonard later recalled in an interview for ESPN. "It was a street brawl. I didn't utilize my skills there. I was determined to stand my ground and fight Duran his way. I don't like Duran's way. He walks around like he owns the world."

Five months later, Leonard got his revenge in one of the most famous and strangest boxing matches ever fought. In a rematch held November 25, 1980, in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana—an event even more anticipated than their first battle—Leonard came back determined to fight his own fight. The plan worked. Through the first six rounds, Leonard outboxed the increasingly frustrated Duran. By the seventh round, Leonard was taunting and goading his ineffective opponent. Finally, with 17 seconds to go in the eighth round, Duran turned away from Leonard, walked back to his corner, threw up his hands, and told the referee "no mas" ("no more"). Referee Octavio Meyran, disbelieving, told Duran to continue, but Duran only repeated "no mas, no mas." Duran had given up, and that phrase would be forever linked to his otherwise remarkable boxing career. "I was just as befuddled as everyone else and shocked," Leonard recalled in an interview with ABC's "Wide World of Sports" for the show's fortieth anniversary. "But I thought it was a trick. I thought Duran was trying to get me closer. You know, trying to walk away and say, 'Ah, no,' then punch me. In fact the referee had no idea what was going on. And then Duran said, 'No mas, no mas,' and then the referee ended the fight so I walked away. People remember Duran, not because of his great fights with Hagler, Davey Moore, me, or Benitez. They remember, 'No mas, no mas.'" Technically, the fight was scored a knockout, and Leonard was champion once again.

Second Title, Second Retirement

Leonard retained his title with a tenth-round knockout of Larry Bonds. Then, in June 1981, he moved up to the light-middleweight class and scored a ninth-round knockout over World Boxing Association (WBA) title holder Ayub Kalule in Houston. To celebrate winning his second boxing title, Leonard performed a back flip in the ring.

Leonard immediately relinquished the WBA title and, on September 16, 1981, in Las Vegas, he returned to the welterweight division for a title unification match with WBA champion Thomas Hearns, a man who was both his friend and archrival. The match turned out to be a war, a true boxing classic. Both fighters took turns playing the roles of slugger and technical boxer. Hearns, nicknamed the "Hit Man," was a talented and powerful fighter, and he was beating Leonard through twelve brutal rounds. However, Leonard battled back in the thirteenth and, with one eye all but swelled completely shut, he knocked Hearns to the floor twice. Finally, Leonard won the fight in the fourteenth round by a TKO when the referee was forced to stop the fight as Leonard pounded Hearns on the ropes. With the titles now unified, Leonard became the undisputed world welter-weight champion.

Leonard successfully defended the title twice. In the meantime, a highly talent fighter had risen to the top of the middleweight ranks. "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, as he was billed, possessed excellent technical skills, a powerful punch, and a rather surly disposition. It seemed inevitable that Leonard and Hagler would meet. However, before Leonard's next scheduled title defense, doctors discovered that he had a detached retina. Leonard underwent surgery in May 1982 and, six months later, he announced that he was retiring from the ring. This disappointed boxing fans who had eagerly awaited a match-up with Hagler. But Leonard did not want to risk possible blindness in his surgically treated eye.

However, like his previous retirement, Leonard's announcement proved premature. After being inactive for 27 months, he returned to the ring in May 1984 and scored a ninth-round TKO over Kevin Howard. Despite the outcome, Leonard was less than impressive as Howard, a journeyman fighter, knocked him to the canvas for the first time in his career. After the match, Leonard announced yet again that he was retiring.

During his periods of inactivity, Leonard took a job as a boxing commentator with the HBO cable TV network and endorsed products. He also started the short-lived Sugar Ray Leonard television network from Maryland, which featured 24-hour boxing news, interviews, and fights.

Returned to Face Hagler

In 1986, the boxing world learned that Leonard was training again and considering a match with Hagler. At last the long-awaited fight was scheduled for April 6, 1987. Many ring observers believed that the up-and-coming Hagler, a ruthless fighter, would easily handle Leonard, who had not fought in three years. However, Leonard scored what Ring magazine called the "Upset of the Decade" when he beat Hagler on points. The outcome was controversial, as the decision was split among the judges. Nevertheless, Leonard had won the WBC middleweight crown, his third title. No fighter had ever won on his first try back at a world title after such a long layoff. Leonard earned about $12 million for one night of work. Once again he announced his retirement.

Retiring and returning was becoming a matter of routine, it seemed. One of the reasons Leonard made so many comebacks is that he could not handle retirement very well. "He had to change his whole life to be Sugar Ray Leonard," his first wife Juanita said during an interview with ESPN Classic's "SportsCentury" television series. "And still today, down inside, it's Ray Leonard. But Sugar Ray Leonard won't let him out."

Later, it was learned that during his several retirements in the 1980s, Leonard missed the action so much that he began using cocaine and alcohol as adrenaline substitutes. Leonard admitted he used cocaine from 1984 to 1989. He would later kick both habits, but not before the substance abuse irreparably damaged his marriage. He and Juanita divorced in 1990.

Another Comeback, More Titles

In November 1988 Leonard once again came out of retirement. Now weighing 167 pounds, he faced the hard-punching Don Lalonde. The solidly built Canadian knocked Leonard down early in their match, but Leonard battled back to score a ninth-round knockout that garnered him both Lalonde's WBC light heavyweight title and the vacated WBC super middleweight title. Now with six world titles at five weights classes, Leonard became the most crowned fighter in boxing history.

Leonard successfully defended the super middleweight title twice against two old rivals, though his skills were starting to diminish. In a June 1989 rematch in Las Vegas, Leonard and Hearns battled to a twelve-round draw. Twice, Hearns knocked the champ to the floor, and observers said Leonard was lucky to come away with a draw. On December 7, 1989, Leonard and Duran faced each other for the third and final time. The match was a disappointment. Both fighters were past their prime, and the bout was rather uneventful. Leonard boxed cautiously and kept his distance while Duran had trouble catching up with his elusive foe. Leonard earned the twelve-round decision on points.

After the match Leonard again retired. But two years later, at age 34, he staged another return, this time in Madison Square Garden in New York City. He should have stayed home. For this comeback, he challenged WBC super welterweight champion Terry Norris and lost in a one-sided fight. Norris not only dominated the match, he knocked Leonard down twice.

That appeared to be the end of the road for Leonard, and it had been a marvelous ride. After he turned pro, Leonard won 35 of his first 36 fights, with 25 knockouts. Throughout his career, he had always managed to rise above most of the troubles that have plagued the sport and other fighters. He never found it necessary to sign on with the two controversial promoters who ruled boxing, Don King and Bob Arum. He remained an independent contractor who carved out his own career, keeping himself clean from the sport's ubiquitous corruption. However, he could not avoid the one mistake that has tarnished the careers of many great fighters: He could not resist the lure of "one more fight." In 1997, the year he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Leonard, 40 years old, tried one more comeback. The results were even worse than before. He fought Hector Camacho, and the "Macho" man embarrassed him by knocking him out in the fifth round.

Leonard finished his career with 36 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw, and he earned an estimated $100 million in the ring—the most money ever made by a professional boxer up to that point. Despite the downbeat ending to his fighting career, he is still regarded as the best non-heavyweight boxer since his namesake, Sugar Ray Robinson.

Post-Ring Career

Though he remained retired, Leonard kept involved in the sport, working as a promoter. In 2001, at 47, Leonard launched Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing, LLC. As chairman of the board, he provided overall leadership and worked with fighters, promoters, television executives, venues, and boxing commissioners to plan boxing events.

Outside the ring, during various retirements, Leonard also worked as a broadcaster for NBC, ABC, HBO, and ESPN. In addition, he appeared in movies and television shows and served as a spokesperson for companies such as EA Sports, Vartec Telecom, Track Inc., Ford, Carnation, 7-Up, Nabisco, Coca-Cola, and Revlon. In addition to his promotional activities, Leonard presented motivational speeches to many major Fortune 500 companies in the United States and abroad.

He also was involved in community work, serving for many years as the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk for a Cure. Leonard had four children and lived in Southern California with his second wife, Bernadette.

Online

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