What Has Boxing Legend Sugar Ray Leonard Been Up to Since Retirement?
Boxing has had several Olympic amateur medalists who went on to professional superstardom, like Muhammad Ali and his incredible rivals, Joe Frasier and George Foreman, “Sweet Pea” Pernell Whitaker, Michael Spinks, Oscar de la Hoya and the recent Pride of Oakland, Andre Ward. But other than Ali, none were as beloved as 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics gold medalist Ray Charles Leonard — best known as Sugar Ray Leonard.
His mother named him after her family’s favorite entertainer, Ray Charles, but the “Sugar” nickname later came from one of Ray’s favorite legendary boxing gurus: Sugar Ray Robinson, who also had success in film and TV. And until Joe Louis, Ali and Ray Leonard made front page news, Robinson had long been called by sports experts the greatest boxer in history.
“My parents said I was a shy kid, and I really was back then, before I got my confidence together in boxing and life while trying to be the best family person I could be,” Leonard has said.
“I never dreamed I’d go on to have true success doing any of this, the amateur and pro boxing, and what followed in my life, right up to current. All that I’ve accomplished afterwards, like in the arts world on various levels and motivational speaking which I enjoy doing, have given me pride. I hope that same sense of pride in oneself transforms others. I started in boxing back in 1969, following my older brother Roger, who already was having ring success. His trophies and awards helped push me to buckle down and achieve, sort of like brotherly competition.”
Leonard achieved tremendous success in amateur boxing around the world besides all he accomplished at the highest levels and in the top competitions there and in the pro ranks.
© 1976 Sports Illustrated. Credit: Walter Iooss Jr. via Getty Images
Leonard in action during a light welterweight fight at the 1976 Summer Olympics
From the Golden Gloves, AAU and Pan-American Games alone, Leonard hit the highest levels of athletic status in America and beyond. All those efforts led to him being on the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team as a Welterweight at the famous 1976 Games in Montreal, part of what sports experts at the time called “the greatest U.S. boxing team in history.” That team included Michael and Leon Spinks, and other big names who went on to major pro boxing world championships in various organizations like the WBA and WBO.
Only Ali rivaled Leonard’s popularity with famous ABC Wide World Of Sports (and more) TV announcer Howard Cosell. Cosell told me before he passed: “I proudly called several of Ray’s amateur boxing successes and, later, many of his 5-star professional boxing titles and accomplishments.”
Leonard blew sports experts away, winning his initial five Olympic matches, a clean 5-0. He then knocked out the favored Cuban ‘Smashing Machine,’ Andres Aldama, to win the gold medal. Ray Leonard has always been simply in a word, incredible.
Leonard said right after completing his amateur career with an unheard-of 165-5 record and 75 knockouts, “I’m finished. I’ve fought my last fight. My journey’s ended, my dream fulfilled. Now I want to go to school.”
He was given a scholarship to University of Maryland, wanting to study business administration and communications. “But professional boxing was soon calling in my ear,” he told me in 2016. “And maybe it was the constant roar of Cosell’s voice in my head!”
When Ali was slowing down in the heavyweight ranks, with boxing briefly losing public interest and attendance, writers and reporters from Sports Illustrated, ESPN and more focused more closely with major publicity on Leonard’s every pro bout. Sugar Ray’s dazzling style and success helped focus attention on the exciting lighter-weight athletes of the Sweet Science, lifting the overall boxing business up singlehandedly. When Ali’s manager/trainer Angelo Dundee joined Camp Leonard, he said, “I’ve never seen a world-class athlete like this since Ali. He’s the savior of boxing.”
UPI ld/Ron Kuntz
The June 1980 “Brawl in Montreal”: Roberto Durán vs. Sugar Ray Leonard
As a pro, Sugar Ray Leonard did bonanza main-event business in battles with then-world champion Roberto “No Más” Durán starting with their their first bout in June 1980, dubbed “The Brawl in Montreal,” following the trend of Ali’s best fights that had trademarked names.
Leonard lost that fight, but in their equally classic November 1980 rematch, Durán famously threw in the towel and his championship, telling the ref “No Más” near the end of the eighth round, not wanting any more of Ray’s fast fists.
Leonard’s first title had him on magazine covers and cereal boxes worldwide once more. He also had success with other 5-star matches with Thomas “Hitman” Hearns in several classics advertised as The Showdown; Wilfred Benitez; “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler and many others.
The fighter became known the “toast of Las Vegas…and the World,” headlining at MGM Grand and Caesar’s Palace, with the top, opulent sports palace arenas selling out each event quickly and setting betting records. Leonard was repeatedly named Boxer of the Year by the top organizations and experts, and his smile, classy behavior out of the ring and charismatic manner landed him non-sports appearances all over the most popular TV shows, along with endorsement deals, commercials all over the world and nonstop success and accolades.
The Ring Magazine via Getty Images
He also famous came back from a detached retina in boxing with the media focused on him 24/7 well before the days of the modern era’s aggressive paparazzi. “Trying to deal with the press at times can be really challenging, especially when your story might be the top news event of the day with them being totally relentless,” Ray told me.
Since Leonard left boxing for good (“never say never on boxing retirements, Mike,” he told me with a smile in an interview 11 years ago), he’s become a part-time actor, best-selling autobiographical book author, reality star on several TV shows, and continued his long-time humanitarian work, receiving several awards for his ongoing community involvement.
Leonard courageously came out about painful abuse directed at him early in his boxing training “to hopefully motivate other people around the world who’ve also suffered, seek help and report any abuse and not simply remain victims.”
For years, his Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation has helped raise awareness and vitally needed funds for many causes like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which he’s also chaired, including its annual fundraising Walk For a Cure. He even testified before a U.S. Senate committee “about how diabetes not just negatively impacts sufferers but their loved ones and the need for more research funding to hopefully one day find a cure.”
Remind He has also championed, and given time and money to, causes “like the need for affordable housing, better healthcare, better overall education and training along with job training and job placement. There’s so much more work to be done in these important areas around the country.” That’s besides all his work around the world as a motivational speaker, ad pitchman and much more.
On the celebrity front, rock, funk and pop music band Sugar Ray (especially lead singer Mark McGrath, who loves the fighting arts) famously took their group’s name from their love and respect for Sugar Ray Leonard.
Sugar Ray Leonard the boxing legend is also a champion dad to his children and is famously godfather to Khloe Kardashian. As a result, he has appeared many times on the hit reality show Keeping up With the Kardashians.
Leonard was also part of another popular TV show when he became one of the more popular and unlikely sports contestants on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
“All of that was a total experience and I had a lot of fun,” he said. “Like being on the 12th season of Dancing With The Stars back in 2011. To say I was, at times, out of my comfort zone, would be an understatement!
Adam Taylor/© ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
“My professional dancer partner, Anna [Trebunskaya, pictured above with Leonard] and I might’ve been voted off in the fourth round, but we had a blast doing at-times complex dances like the Paso Doble, Waltz and Foxtrot. The long sessions with Anna were tough workouts, let me tell you, and I had my share of what I thought were tough workouts before all that in boxing years ago. These were extreme workouts with lots of needed repetition. I was proud to get that opportunity and of all the work we put in — and let me tell you, we put in the work! It was really another life-changing, amazing experience I was blessed to get to do.”
It’s no wonder Sugar Ray Leonard has often been called the superman of sports and the arts. Sugar’s just one of his many nicknames among his larger overall palette of skillsets.
Pop culture historian Dr Mike has hosted/cohosted sports and film/TV/arts syndicated radio shows since 1974 including “No Holds Barred” on Sirius/XM and still writes for a number of newspapers and magazines. Holler at him at [email protected].