Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard
Data
Birth Name	Ray Charles Leonard
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	17th May 1956
place of birth	Wilmington
style	Left delivery
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	40
Victories	36
Knockout victories	25th
Defeats	3
draw	1

Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956 in Wilmington , North Carolina , United States ) is a retired American boxer . In the 1970s and 1980s, he was considered one of the best boxers in the world. He won world titles in various weight classes and triumphed in fights against high-profile boxers such as Thomas Hearns , Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler . Born Ray Charles Leonard after the singer Ray Charles , he later changed his name to the famous boxer Sugar Ray Robinson .

amateur

Leonard won the gold medal in the light welterweight (up to 63.5 kg) at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , where he a. a. Ulrich Beyer from the GDR and in the final beat the Cuban Andrés Aldama . Other amateur successes were winning the Golden Gloves in 1972 and 1973, and the US Championship in 1974 and 1975. He also won the North American Championships in 1974 and the Pan American Games in 1975 in Mexico City .

He ended his amateur career with 145 wins out of five losses. He originally planned to go to college afterwards . But since his father fell ill and his family needed financial support, he became a professional boxer.

professional

Sugar Ray Leonard 1984

Leonard initially trained under Angelo Dundee and played his first professional fight on February 5, 1977 against the Puerto Rican Luis Vega. The fight was broadcast nationwide, Leonard won over six rounds on points and was rewarded with $ 40,000.

Leonard won his first 25 professional fights and then fought for the first title in August 1979. He beat Pete Ranzany (balance 45-3) in the fourth round KO and won the title of the then respected North American Boxing Federation .

Three months later he challenged the undefeated WBC welterweight champion Wilfred Benitez , now also a Hall of Famer . The encounter took place on November 30, 1979 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas . Leonard won the world title by a technical knockout in the fifteenth round, a few seconds before the end of the fight.

Leonard won his first title defense by knocking out British challenger Dave Green in the fourth round in Landover , Maryland . Green went to the ground after a left hook to his chin. This fight was also televised across the United States.

He then met Roberto Durán in the first "Superfight" of the 1980s . Leonard lost on June 20, 1980 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal after fifteen rounds unanimously on points, although he had delivered a courageous fight. The distribution of points was 148-147, 145-144 and 146-144 for Durán.

The rematch took place on November 25, 1980 in New Orleans . This time Leonard dominated the fight with his usual agility and frustrated Durán from the first round. On lap seven he became more and more superior and on lap eight Durán turned around, went to his corner and gave up, saying the famous words: “No más” ( not (any more )). For referee Octavio Meyran, the action was just as incredible as it was for the crowd, and he asked Duran if he was safe. Duran repeated, "No más, no más." Duran, who had lost tremendous weight in the weeks leading up to the fight and had eaten too much after weighing, claimed he gave up because he had stomach cramps . Most observers did not believe this, however, but rather believed that Leonard's superiority and the way he performed and ridiculed Durán were the reasons for his abandonment.

On June 25, 1981, he fought against Ayub Kalule , undefeated (38-0) WBA light middleweight champion, a southpaw from Uganda , who was based in Denmark . Kalule gave Leonard a tough fight, and the score was pretty even until the end of the fight, when Kalule was hit in the chin by a right Leonard's right hand in the ninth round and was badly knocked out.

Leonard's main rival Thomas Hearns now dominated the welterweight division and won the WBA title with a knockout victory against the powerful Mexican Pipino Cuevas . For September 16, 1981, a union battle between the two opponents was scheduled, again in Caesars Palace. Leonard and Hearns fought a "battle of the century". Hearns took an early lead on points but was badly battered on the sixth lap. Then the tide turned and Leonard clearly got the upper hand. After a few laps, however, Hearns recovered and caught up on points. He led on all three scoreboards early in round 13, but then Leonard managed to knock Hearns down twice that round. After a real hail from Leonard in lap 14, referee David Pearl stopped the fight. From this point on, Leonard was the undisputed world champion in welterweight.

Sports Illustrated magazine named him Sportsman of the Year 1981 .

Within 22 months Leonard had won against four absolute world-class opponents (Benitez, Durán, Kalule and Hearns) prematurely. All four were world champions when they lost to him, and together they had 177 wins with just one draw and one loss.

A title defense against Bruce Finch followed , but the planned fight against Roger Stafford had to be canceled. Doctors found Leonard to have a detached retina , and he was operated on at Johns Hopkins Hospital . At that time there was already great interest in a fight by Leonard against the reigning middleweight world champion Marvin Hagler .

Leonard took a job as a commentator, and some time later he invited Hagler and other boxing greats to Washington, DC , where he announced his retirement from boxing. Hagler was very disappointed.

In 1984 Sugar Ray attempted a comeback . He fought Kevin Howard (record 20-4 with only 12 KOs) and went down for the first time in his career. Although he came up again and won in the ninth round by technical knockout, he announced in the press conference that he wanted to retire from boxing again.

In 1987, however, he dared a comeback and actually fought against Hagler for the world middleweight championship. Hagler was a big favorite because he had been middleweight world champion for seven years and had not lost for eleven years. Leonard, on the other hand, had only fought once in the past five years and that was three years ago. In addition, Leonard had never boxed in the middleweight class before. But Leonard should surprise the experts. On April 6, 1987, he won the middleweight title by majority decision. Only a month later, however, he resigned.

On November 7th, 1988 he had his next comeback and fought against the Canadian Don Lalonde . Leonard defeated him in the ninth round by knockout and had thereby won two titles, the vacant WBC world championship title in super middleweight and Lalondes title in light heavyweight.

In 1989, Leonard faced two old rivals. In June, he fought Hearns in Las Vegas, went down twice, but saved a controversial tie, which most observers considered flattering, with a strong final round. Six months later he also fought in Las Vegas for the third time against his arch-rival Roberto Durán and won by a unanimous point victory.

In 1990 Leonard did not fight, but in 1991 he faced WBC light middleweight champion Terry Norris at Madison Square Garden . He had asked Emanuel Steward , the ex-trainer of Hearns, for help, but he didn't believe that Leonard, who had boxed in the super middleweight division, could get the weight off without any loss of substance and refused. He was right: Leonard went down twice and lost heavily on points. After hearing the referee's decision, he again announced his resignation.

Difficult times lay ahead of him. He admitted that he had been addicted to cocaine from 1984 to 1989 , and there were rumors that he had been violent against his wife. Leonard said his problems came from being addicted to boxing, but in 1989 he resolved his problems. He and his wife Juanita divorced and in 1993 he married Bernadette Robi, the daughter of Paul Robi , one of the founders of the Platters .

He tried a comeback again in 1997, but his opponent Hector Camacho , also a legend of the 1980s, was still too good for him. He knocked Leonard out in the fifth round. Then Leonard finally resigned from active boxing. In 1997 he was inducted into the " International Boxing Hall of Fame ".

For a short time he worked as a boxing promoter for IBF cruiserweight title holder Vasily Schirow and heavyweight Joe Mesi . Today he works for a reality TV series about boxing, "The Contender". Together with Sylvester Stallone , he is the host and mentor for upcoming boxers.

List of professional fights

36 wins (25 knockout wins), 3 defeats , 1 draw
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Leonard
1977	February 5th	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore , Maryland , USA	Luis Vega	Points victory (unanimously) / 6 rounds
	May 14th	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Willie Rodriguez	Points victory (unanimously) / 6 rounds
	June 10th	Hartford Civic Center , Hartford , Connecticut , USA	Vinnie DeBarros	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	September 24th	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Frank Santore	Victory / KO 5th round
	November 5th	Caesars Palace , Las Vegas , Nevada , USA	Augustine Estrada	Victory / KO 5th round
	December 17th	DC Armory, Washington, DC , USA	Hector Diaz	Victory / KO 2nd round
1978	February 4th	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Rocky Ramon	Points victory (unanimously) / 8 rounds
	1st March	Hara Arena, Dayton , Ohio , USA	Art McKnight	Victory / TKO 7th round
	19th March	New Haven Coliseum, New Haven , Connecticut, USA	Javier Muniz	Victory / KO 1st round
	April 13th	Capital Center, Landover , Maryland, USA	Bobby Haymon	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	May 13th	Utica Memorial Auditorium, Utica , New York , USA	Randy Milton	Victory / TKO 8th round
	3rd of June	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Rafael Rodriguez	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	July 18th	Hynes Convention Center, Boston , Massachusetts , USA	Dicky Eklund	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	the 9th of September	Providence Civic Center , Providence , Rhode Island , USA	Floyd Mayweather Sr.	Victory / TKO 10th round
	October 6th	Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Randy Shields	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	November 3rd	Cumberland County Civic Center , Portland , Maine , USA	Bernardo Prada	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	9th of December	Springfield Civic Center , Springfield , Massachusetts, USA	Armando Muniz	Victory / abandonment 6th round
1979	11th January	Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA	Johnny Gant	Victory / TKO 8th round
	February 11th	Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach , Florida , USA	Fernand Marcotte	Victory / TKO 8th round
	March 24th	Tucson Convention Center, Tucson , Arizona , USA	Daniel Aldo Gonzalez	Victory / KO 1st round
	April 21	The Dunes , Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Adolfo Viruet	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	May 20th	Centroplex, Baton Rouge , Louisiana , USA	Marcos Geraldo	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	June 24th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Tony Chiaverini	Victory / abandonment 4th round
	12. August	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Pete Ranzany NABF Welterweight Championship	Victory / TKO 4th round
	September 28th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Andy Price NABF Welterweight Title Defense	Victory / KO 1st round
	30th of November	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Wilfred Benitez WBC World Welterweight Championship	Victory / TKO 15th round
1980	March 31	Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA	Dave Green WBC welterweight title defense	Victory / KO 4th round
	20th June	Olympic Stadium , Montreal , Canada	Roberto Durán WBC welterweight title defense	Loss of points (unanimously) / 15 rounds
	25. November	Louisiana Superdome , New Orleans , Louisiana, USA	Roberto Durán WBC World Welterweight Championship	Victory / TKO 8th round
1981	28th March	Carrier Dome, Syracuse , New York, USA	Larry Bonds WBC welterweight title defense	Victory / TKO 10th round
	25th June	Astrodome , Houston , Texas , USA	Ayub Kalule WBA World Super Welterweight Championship	Victory / TKO 9th round
	16th September	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Thomas Hearns WBA / WBC Welterweight Title Association	Victory / TKO 14th round
1982	February 15th	Centennial Coliseum, Reno , Nevada, USA	Bruce Finch WBA / WBC welterweight title defense	Victory / TKO 3rd round
1984	May 11th	Worcester Centrum , Worcester , Massachusetts, USA	Kevin Howard	Victory / TKO 9th round
1987	April 6th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Marvelous Marvin Hagler WBC World Middleweight Championship	Points win (split decision) / 12 rounds
1988	November 7th	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Donny Lalonde WBC World Light Heavyweight Championship vacant WBC World Super Middleweight Championship	Victory / TKO 9th round
1989	June 12	Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Thomas Hearns WBC / WBO Super Middleweight Title Association	Tie (split decision) / 12 rounds
	December 7th	Mirage Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA	Roberto Durán WBC Super Middleweight Title Defense	Points victory (unanimously) / 12 rounds
1991	February 9	Madison Square Garden , New York City , New York, USA	Terry Norris WBC World Super Welterweight Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
1997	1st March	Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City , New Jersey , USA	Hector Camacho	Loss / TKO 5th round
Source: Sugar Ray Leonard in the BoxRec database

successes

amateur

• 1973: National Golden Gloves lightweight champion
• 1973: Vice AAU light welterweight champion
• 1974: AAU light welterweight champion
• 1974: National Golden Gloves light welterweight champion
• 1975: AAU light welterweight champion
• 1975: Pan American light welterweight champion
• 1976: Olympic light welterweight champion

professional

• November 30, 1979: WBC welterweight champion (1 title defense)
• November 25, 1980: WBC welterweight champion (3 title defenses)
• June 25, 1981: WBA light middleweight champion
• September 16, 1981: WBA welterweight champion (1 title defense)
• April 6, 1987: WBC World Middleweight Champion
• November 7, 1988: WBC light heavyweight champion
• November 7, 1988: WBC world champion in super middleweight (2 title defenses)

Further titles and honors

• 1976: Voted Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America
• August 12, 1979: NABF welterweight champion (1 title defense)
• 1979: Voted Boxer of the Year by Ring Magazine , Boxing Illustrated , KO Magazine, and the Boxing Writers Association of America
• 1981: Voted Boxer of the Year by Ring Magazine, Boxing Writers Association of America, Boxing Illustrated, and KO Magazine
• 1987: Boxing Illustrated and KO Magazine voted Boxer of the Year
• For the 1980s, he was considered the world's best boxer of the decade, with the Mark Grossinger Etess Award awarded
• 1997: Induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame

Television appearances

In 1992 he made a guest appearance in A Terribly Nice Family . He played himself and literally "knocked Al Bundy off his shoes" in a commercial.

In 2011 he was a participant in the twelfth season of the television program Dancing with the Stars , the American equivalent of Let's Dance .

Trivia

Ray Leonard currently works as a boxing coach and was responsible, among other things, for advising and training Hugh Jackman for his role in the film Real Steel .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Interview with John Stewart on the Daily Show, October 5, 2011 . Comedy Central website. Retrieved October 6, 2011.

Web links

• Sugar Ray Leonard in the BoxRec database
• Sugar Ray Leonard in the Internet Movie Database (English)