Ray Leonard doesn’t Sugar-coat his life

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This article was published 16/07/2011 (5502 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Big Fight

My Life In and Out of the Ring

By Sugar Ray Leonard with Michael Arkush

Penguin, 298 pages, $31

Sugar Ray Leonard doesn’t pull any punches in this fascinating tell-all autobiography.

The slick, articulate and made-for-TV American boxing star doesn’t flinch when discussing his greatest triumphs inside the ropes, most notably his wins over Marvellous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran, or when talking about the lowest points in his life, including sexual abuse at the hands of two advisers, his alcoholism and cocaine addiction and his non-stop womanizing.

Anybody who came of age as a sports fan in the late 1970s and early 1980s will be captivated by Leonard’s story. He was, without a doubt, one of the most famous people in the world and seemingly hand-picked by Muhammad Ali to follow in his illustrious, fancy and blindingly fast footsteps.

A self-described egomaniac, Leonard is driven by his lust for the public eye and cementing his place as one of the greats in boxing history. That’s the Sugar Ray side of his personality.

He accepts the full blame for his many shortcomings, including his addictions, the hell he put his first wife, Juanita, through, all too often being an absentee father to Ray Jr. and his inability to stand up to the many hangers-on who increasingly appeared with outstretched hands as his fortune grew. That’s the darker Ray Leonard side.

The first boxer to earn $100 million in purses, Leonard gives readers the inside story on how he prepared for fights — he once lost the last few pounds before a weigh-in by sitting in a car in the middle of summer, with the windows rolled up, wearing a sweatshirt covered by a plastic garbage bag — and how he dealt with the results. When he won, he’d celebrate by binging on booze, drugs and beautiful women. When he lost, he’d cope with his depression by binging on booze, drugs and beautiful women.

Like Manitoba-born hockey player Theo Fleury, Leonard was sexually abused as a kid. He doesn’t go into much detail about a pair of incidents but what he says paints enough of a picture.

He names neither perpetrator, one a boxing coach and the other a financial backer, and says both died “decades ago.” Leonard writes that he had flashbacks to the two attacks for years, especially when he drank, which was often.

He also reveals his mindset and the mind games going into some of the biggest fights in boxing history, how he battled the never-ending fear of being permanently hurt and his determination to inflict great pain on his opponents.

Leonard was born in 1956 in a community called Palmer Park, located about 20 minutes from Washington, D.C. Like many boxers, he was born into poverty. His dad was the night manager in a 24-hour supermarket; while his mom was a nurse’s assistant.

Leonard’s determination in the squared circle was almost matched by his indecisiveness outside of it. He retired four times during his career, the last time in 1997.

He has been involved in a number of business ventures since then, including co-starring in a reality-TV show called The Contender, along with Sylvester Stallone, in which young fighters honed their craft. He has also become active in Alcoholics Anonymous.

He was the second fighter to win world championship titles in five different weight classes.

Boxing is the most intimate of sports, and there’s a brotherhood that joins those who are prepared to die for glory. But that doesn’t mean they’re all going to be friends. Leonard hated Duran for most of his career — they had one lighthearted time filming a 7-Up commercial with their sons in 1980 — but he remains good friends with Hearns to this day.

He wished that he and Hagler could have the same relationship, but Hagler still harbours severe bitterness over his loss to Leonard, which he believes he won but was jobbed by the judges.

There’s even a Winnipeg connection. In 1989, he fought local boxing legend Donny Lalonde, “an unknown from Canada” who seemed “more like a surfer than a boxer.”

The surfer almost scored one of the biggest upsets in boxing history at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas but couldn’t finish Leonard off after knocking him to the canvas in the fourth round.

Leonard first rose to international stardom as captain of the U.S. boxing team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where he won gold in the light welterweight division. Montreal is also where he suffered his first loss as a professional at the hands of Duran.

Leonard is a compelling figure, and even though he has many failings as a human being, readers will cheer for him to get up off the mat when he gets knocked down, both in and out of the ring.

Free Press reporter Geoff Kirbyson is a longtime fan of the sweet science. As the Broadsheet Bully, he has a 2-1 record as an amateur.