Sugar+Ray



Sugar Ray

Ray Leonard was born May 17, 1956 in Rocky Mount, South Carolina.He was the fifth of seven children of Ciscero and Getha Leonard. His mother wanted him to be a singer, so she named him Ray Charles Leonard. In Wilmington, Leonard's father worked in a soda pop plant, and his mother was a nursing assistant. When Leonard was four, the family moved to Washington, D.C. Leonard seemed to be the least aggressive and shy by nature compared to his other brothers. In the 1970's, Leonard went under the wing of David Jacobs. He learned the fine points of boxing. He worked harder than he ever had before and was determined to succeed. He also ran track and field. With hard work ethic and dicipline, he became a successful boxer and was nicknamed after Sugar Ray Robinson. By his mid-teens Leonard proved adept at boxing. He had his first professional fight on February 5, 1977, when he won a 6-round decision over Luis Vega. As an amateur, he won 145 of 150 bouts and garnered two National Golden Glove championships and two Amateur Athletic Union championships.

Ray Leonard was considered one of the greatest fighters of all time. Ray Leonard bursted onto the international scene in by winning the light welter-weight gold medal at the 1976 Olyimpic Games in Montreal. He turned professional with a lawyer, Mike Trainer, handling the business side of his career whilst hiring the legendary trainer Angelo Dundee to guide him towards the top. Dundee's success with Muhammad Ali and Trainer's business savvy ensured that three years later, Sugar Ray Leonard was not only a millionaire, but ready for his first world title.

On June 25, 1981, Leonard won the world junior middleweight title by knocking out Ayub Kalule in the 9th round at Houston. Later that year, he won an estimated $10 million, then the highest single paycheck ever for an athlete, by knocking out Tommy Hearns in the 14th round to defend his welterweight championship. A detached retina forced Leonard's retirement in 1982. He returned for one fight in 1984, then retired again. On April 7, 1987, Leonard won a split decision over Marvin Hagler in Las Vegas to claim the World Boxing Council's middleweight. He broke his own record by collecting an $11 million bundle. A month later, he retired once more, but Leonard returned again to win the WBC light heavyweight and super middleweight titles in November of 1988, when he knocked out Don Lalonde of Canada. Leonard retired for good after being badly beaten by Terry Norris on February 9, 1991. Leonard has also made an appearance on Dancing with the Stars. media type="youtube" key="ijUbPtrIY2A" width="425" height="350" []



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Bibliography:

"Sugar Ray Leonard Biography." //Biography.com// Web. 27 May 2011 []. --> I used this site to learn of Leonard's life before his boxing career. It gave an incite into where he grew up.

"Sugar Ray Leonard Says Olympic Boxing Coach Sexually Abused Him as a Teen | Mail Online." //Home | Mail Online//. Web. 30 May 2011. []. --> I used this site to learn about Leonard's transformation into Sugar Ray. His boxing career was exemplified.

"HickokSports.com - Biography - Sugar Ray Leonard." //HickokSports.com Main Menu//. Web. 30 May 2011. []. --> I used this site to see a little bit of how Sugar Ray's career ended. It showed who he fought and how he went out a champion.

"Vince Neil - Motley Crue - Autographed 16x20 Photograph: SuperStar Greetings on Sale @ Sportsblink." //SportsBlink.com - Compare Buy Discount Sports Store, MLB, NFL, NCAA, NHL, NBA, PNASCAR, Golf, ALL SPORTS, Soccer, Boxing, Tennis//. Web. 02 June 2011. []. --> This is a picture on the site. It is a pose of Sugar Ray with the title.

"Cyber Boxing Zone -- "Sugar" Ray Leonard." //The Cyber Boxing Zone//. Web. 02 June 2011. []. --> This is a picture on the site. It is one of Sugar Ray's many fights. He won this match as well.

"SUGAR RAY LEONARD Right Here In Regina!! | News Talk 980 CJME." //Home | News Talk 980 CJME//. Web. 02 June 2011. []. --> This is a picture on the site. It is Sugar Ray after a hard-fought match.