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Sugar was sweet on the Wide World stage
By Will Weiss
ABC Sports Online
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"I watched (Muhammad) Ali, studied Ali, I studied Sugar Ray Robinson. I watched them display showmanship, personality and charisma. I took things from them and I borrowed things from them, because boxing is entertainment. Boxing's a sport but it's also entertainment. I wanted to transcend the sport, I wanted to be considered, not just a fighter or a champion, but someone special."
--Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard stormed into the boxing world with his 1976 gold medal victory at the Montreal Olympics. Strangely, he had no desire to turn professional. But medical bills for his ailing father pressed Leonard to turn pro.
|  | | Sugar Ray Leonard's gold medal at the 1976 Olympics was the springboard to his career. |
"Janks Morton, who was my trainer, and kind of my advisor in a sense, said, 'Ray, fame is fleeting. So you better take advantage of your name now and turn professional, and help your father,'" says Leonard. "It was very sound, instructive advice. Thank God I heeded that advice."
What came from that decision was one of the best careers boxing has ever known. And much of it was highlighted on Wide World of Sports.
Leonard made his Wide World debut on May 14, 1977 when he defeated Willie Rodriguez by unanimous decision in his second professional fight. From that bout until his WBC welterweight title fight with Wilfred Benitez in November of 1979, Leonard was a mainstay on Wide World and became a star, fighting 12 times in that time frame.
"Ali had just stepped down, so there was kind of an open or void that could be filled, if done the right way," Leonard says.
After defeating Benitez to win the title, critics jeered that Leonard was a media creation and questioned his fighting ability. Leonard silenced the skeptics with a fourth-round TKO of Davey Green in his first title defense, claiming the knockout punch was the hardest punch he had ever thrown.
More concerned with Green than the count, he walked over to check on his opponent, who lay on the canvas unconscious.
"It was the first time I was ever frightened by a punch I threw," Leonard recalls. "He shook the canvas. He went straight back, boom. I was concerned because there was never any animosity. I wanted to make sure that he was OK."
After the Green fight, perhaps one of Leonard's most memorable bouts occurred on WWOS from the site of his Olympic victory -- his first of three fights with Roberto Duran.
Even more exciting than the fight itself was the pre-fight taunting. Leonard responded to taunts in the ring before, but never before a fight.
"He challenged me, he pushed me, he punched me, he kicked me. I mean he cursed me, cursed my wife, I mean, he did things that ... he challenged my manhood," Leonard remembers. "I was always taught that, you always be professional on camera and in front of people. So I did not react to it or respond to it."
Duran's tactics were successful, as Leonard lost his focus, and in turn, the title.
|  | | Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran provided fans with two memorable bouts. |
"He came out with such an intensity, he came out with such a vengeance, I didn't realize I was in a fight until like the third or fourth round when he hurt me with an uppercut or a hook, I don't know what it was. It was a big punch," says Leonard. "And I never quite got myself together in that fight."
Leonard got himself together for the rematch five months later at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Duran quit in the eighth round, uttering, "No mas, no mas." It was scored as a knockout, giving Sugar Ray the title once again.
The following year, Leonard jumped up to the junior middleweight division and knocked out champion Ayub Kalule in nine rounds. But he returned to the welterweight division to unify the title.
He unified the welterweight title with a 14th-round knockout of Thomas "Hitman" Hearns in September of '81, a fight remembered as arguably one of the greatest in the division and in boxing in general. Despite beating Benitez and Duran, the Hearns fight was the one where Leonard silenced his critics for good.
It was a slugfest throughout, and Leonard's left eye was swollen and reduced to a slit due to a combination of shots from Hearns and an elbowing incident in a sparring match a few days prior to the match. Leonard was losing the bout, but came back to knock out the Hitman and unify the welterweight championship.
"That fight gave me the stamp of approval that I was indeed a real fighter," Leonard says. "That I was indeed a guy who could get knocked down and come back strong, a guy who could come back after being handicapped with a shut eye. And I was a real fighter. That I had heart."
He fought one more time on WWOS in 1982, defeating Bruce Finch to defend his welterweight belt before retiring as a result of a detached retina. Nonetheless, he returned two years later, when he knocked out Kevin Howard before retiring again.
|  | | Leonard-Hearns II was a slugfest with a controversial ending.
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Once again, Leonard came back in 1987 and upset Marvin Hagler in a split decision to capture the middleweight title -- a fight he deemed to be the greatest accomplishment of his life.
"No one thought I could win that fight but my father," said Leonard. "And it meant a lot to me to prove them wrong."
He continued his career, winning the WBC light heavyweight title and the WBC super middleweight title, giving him titles in five different divisions. He fought Hearns one more time in defense of his super middleweight title and retained the championship in a controversial draw, which is still disputed today. He also fought Duran for a third time and defeated him in a decision.
He retired for a third time, yet came back again to fight WBC super welterweight champ Terry Norris, who defeated Leonard in a unanimous decision.
Another unsuccessful comeback was launched in 1997 at age 40, when Hector Camacho stopped Leonard with a fifth round TKO, the only time Leonard was knocked out in his career.
What people remember about Sugar Ray Leonard, aside from his being a gifted athlete, is his charisma and entertainment value. He recognized it as well. Where Muhammad Ali left off, Sugar Ray Leonard picked up on Wide World of Sports, where he made his name known.
Sugar Ray took care of the rest by himself.
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