He claimed the gold medal in light-welterweight boxing on 1976 Olympic video games and moved pro a year later. Their 1987 defeat of “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler for any industry Boxing Council’s middleweight subject is recognized as one of the biggest pro boxing fits of all time. Leonard retired in 1997 with accurate documentation of 36-3-1 and was inducted to the Boxing Hall of popularity.
Early Years
Certainly boxing’s many precious and winning competitors, Sugar Ray Leonard came into this world Ray Charles Leonard on 17, 1956, in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 5th of Gertha and Cicero Leonard’s seven youngsters, he was named after his mom’s best performer, Ray Charles.
Whenever Leonard had been 36 months outdated, he and his household moved to Washington, D.C. Seven years afterwards, they relocated to a long-term home in Palmer Park, Maryland. Leonard was raised in a loving homes, where funds were frequently tight. Their parent obtained a full time income as a night manager at a supermarket, while Gertha worked as a nurse.
For Leonard, life ended up being typically tough—as a young child, he saw schedules around your squandered by crime and assault. A number of his senior high school friends passed away due to aggressive crimes; numerous others happened to be provided for prison. Leonard, but got determined not to ever succumb to his environments.
As an athlete, Leonard was just limited at employees sports. Their two older brothers, who had begun to dabble in boxing, convinced your to see the Palmer Park area heart (her regional relaxing center) and strap on some gloves. Their lifetime could not function as the same again.
Leonard quickly turned into obsessed with boxing, in accordance with perfecting his skills when you look at the sport. “for whatever reason, i desired they to so bad,” he told activities Illustrated in 1979. “we believed it in me personally, and that I needed to keep working.”
Soaring Celebrity
Leonard is fast and deft. Moreover, he had been desperate to find out. In 1973, the fruits of their work started to pay off. The guy claimed the state Golden Gloves that year, and per year afterwards, he had been crowned the nationwide novice Athletic Union champ.
STUDY UPCOMING
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“whenever I began, we always combat like Joe Frazier,” Leonard as soon as said. “I would enter low, bob and weave, and I knocked-out a lot of men like this. I straightened out whenever I spotted Muhammad Ali, when I started studying glucose Ray Robinson.” Leonard’s reverence for Robinson ran thus deep which he in the course of time got the nickname “glucose Ray,” which trapped.
During the period of his winning recreational job, Leonard obtained three state Golden Gloves titles, two AAU titles as well as the 1975 Pan American title. Within 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, the guy vaulted to celebrity updates by overcoming extreme give accidents to win the gold medal during the light-welterweight (139-pound) unit.
Professional Job
Leonard didn’t come with systems for getting a specialist boxer; quickflirt he’d hoped to cash in on their Olympic profits, and do not step-back in band once again. But family members pressures, like all of their mothers getting ill, required their give, and not long after the Olympics, the guy began battling once again.
As an expert, Leonard coordinated alike triumph he would had as an amateur fighter. In November 1979, the guy won society Boxing Council’s welterweight concept, as well as the following ten years, he battled in a few of boxing’s most notable bouts, winning nearly all ones. His victories integrated victories over Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns.
Leonard retired back in 1984, just a few age later, in 1987, walked back in the ring to upset “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler for all the middleweight top. To this day, the 1987 Leonard-Hagler fight are generally thought about one of the biggest battles in boxing records.
Leonard retired from boxing once and for all in 1997, completing his pro boxing profession with a 36-3-1 record and 25 knockouts. Afterwards that season, he had been inducted to the Global Boxing hallway of Fame.
In Recent Years
Last year, Leonard performed on hit ABC program Dancing aided by the Stars (month 12), contending against Ralph Macchio, Wendy Williams and Hines Ward, among many celebrities. That same seasons, the guy posted his memoir The Big Fight: My Life inside and out associated with Ring. He could be in addition productive in philanthropy through Sugar Ray Leonard basis, that he created in 2009 along with his partner Bernadette. The entity in question elevates resources for juvenile diabetes studies and promotes awareness regarding the medical condition.
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