Sweet as Sugar Ray Leonard he ever was

JM116y ago

SUGAR Ray Leonard represents the last true golden era of boxing. Sweet as he ever wasIt was two decades ago when Mike Tyson - before rape charges, ear biting and road rage - ruled the heavyweights with a violent dominance. Michael Spinks was just as controlling in the light heavyweights until moving up a division and running into a Tyson right hand. In the middleweights there was any combination of Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran. And they didn't run. Leonard fought Duran three times, Hearns twice and Hagler once. Hagler took care of Hearns and Duran, while Hearns pulverised Duran with one of boxing's biggest right hands. They were epics and Ray Charles Leonard, now a softly spoken 53-year-old living in Los Angeles, survived to tell the stories. Next Thursday night, Leonard will appear at a cancer fundraiser -- titled A Little Bit Of Sugar -- at Melbourne's Sofitel Hotel, to benefit the Olivia Newton-John cancer fund. Leonard retired from the ring aged 34 after losing to "Terrible" Terry Norris on points in 1991. Truth is, Terry wasn't all that terrible - but "Sugar" Ray was. He came back once more - six years later - and was stopped by Hector Comacho. When reminded of his last ill-advised fight, Leonard says with a laugh: "Yeah, but who owned the TV rights and where is the money. . . still in the vault - and only I know the combination." His great adversaries followed different paths. Hagler retired aged 32 in 1987 after losing a disputed points verdict to Leonard. Hearns, on the other hand, fought until 47 and Duran entered the ring for the last time in 2001 as a sad 50-year-old. These days Leonard speaks like he used to box - clean, clear, relaxed and in control. He is still something of a darling in his home country, a love affair that began at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Leonard had been introduced to boxing at age 14 by his older brother Roger, who had a reasonably successful career. But according to Ray, his older brother lacked the discipline great fighters need. So the kid who had been named Ray Charles after the legendary performer took his good looks and brains into the ring. His first boxing idol was "Smokin" Joe Frazier who had a similar left hook to that which Leonard used to turn defeat into victory in some epics. Frazier was soon replaced by Muhammad Ali, whose dancing feet and fast hands Leonard found irresistible. By the time he reached the Montreal Olympics as a light welterweight, he was married to childhood sweetheart Juanita and the father of two-year-old Ray Jr. A winner of 140 of 145 amateur fights before the Games, he won five straight in Canada while carrying a picture of his son in his sock. He became an overnight hero and a lucrative professional career beckoned, but Leonard retired to study at the University of Maryland. Then fate played its hand. "My father became sick and we needed to pay the bills. I could make good money through the gift I had been given, so I turned professional," Leonard said this week in an interview from his home in Los Angeles. "I don't regret it even if I wouldn't ask my kids to do the same. Ray Jr is a personal trainer; my next son Jarrell is in trade school; daughter Camille is 12 and youngest son Daniel is a six-year-old who wants to ski and surf. "After boxing I wanted to do something with meaning, wanted to be of service. I wanted to use my celebrity to make a difference. "I might have done some great things in the ring, but now it's about people in general. "My mum is a cancer survivor and I know quite a few people whose lives have been affected by cancer, so it's a wonderful cause." He comes across as a very relaxed man, someone content with his lot. "Life is great. I'm a very blessed man, working on my first autobiography and fortunately my memory is good. "It still gives me goosebumps when I think of my career and I appreciate it more so than before because I can sit back and take it all in. "Take that first fight with Tommy Hearns in 1981 when I was behind on points. I had the right game plan and never gave up, so it was definitely one of my major triumphs. And it was against a great fighter. "And a tall one. I used to say I was 5ft 11 (180cm) but the truth is I'm 5'9" (175cm). What's Tommy? (He's 185cm.) "That night I got it right whereas my first fight with Roberto Duran in Montreal in 1980 I tried to slug it out with him. The return fight a few months later I got it right. "Do I still see those guys? Tommy came to my wedding (to second wife Bernadette) and is a friend. Duran I bump into occasionally but we don't say much. "And Marvin Hagler? After I beat him in 1987 he took it to heart and went to live in Italy. "I see him every now and then, maybe a charity event, maybe a Hall of Fame function, and we are very civil, very cordial." The happy Leonard today hasn't always been the case - 25 years ago he had retired from boxing aged 25 because of a detached retina. Bitter that his career had been taken from him, he began using cocaine and excessive alcohol. While he returned to the ring, those years took their toll on his marriage to Juanita, a well-publicised and unpleasant divorce played out amidst allegations of physical assault. Leonard remarried Bernadette Robi, while Juanita married another sporting icon in Otis Nixon, of baseball's Atlanta Braves. Leonard is saddened modern boxing is far from its peak: "There are too many governing bodies who devalue the belts. "Our amateur program isn't as strong and we lack personalities. "But in saying that, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao would be great fighters in any era. "The great fighters in my era were some of those guys I fought. Hearns and Duran, I can still feel their punches." http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25963658-11088,00.html