Sugar Ray Leonard does an AMA on Reddit

Hi guys - been a while. I was alerted by a friend to whats called an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit by none other than my 2nd favorite boxer of all time - Sugar Ray Leonard.

Not sure how many of you browse the site (the boxing section is....awful on a quick check) but thought you'd find it interesting.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3a2kqh/i_am_sugar_ray_leonard_ama/

Top of the morning to you, Jabby. Good to see you back.

Ta for sharing.

By the way, who is 1st, then? Lennox?

Cheers for this, I liked the Federer one better, but this was class

88Chris05 wrote:Top of the morning to you, Jabby. Good to see you back.

Ta for sharing.

By the way, who is 1st, then? Lennox?

You have a good memory my friend. It is indeed - shame that Martinez retired too, he was my 3rd. Sad day.

Don't suppose any of you wonderful souls would do a copy and paste jobby for me please, would you?

Chris, due to the number of fawning 'thankyous', 'legend' etc it's a bit of a lengthy piece to post. No answers that you won't have seen before... At least of a boxing persuasion.

I know a lot of people think he's smug and can't stand him, but allowing for some self congratulatory cockiness that's generally said with a bit of tongue in cheek, I generally think he comes across pretty well.

... But then I've been called smug on occasion myself

Ah right, didn't know if Reddit was just a straightforward letters 'n' words thing or a bit more, milkman.

Like you, I've always thought Leonard does his bragging with just about enough charm and humour to get away with it.

Always been a fan of Leonard, smugness a bit irritating yes but why oh why didn't he give Hagler a rematch? With another huge payday...

In the old days of the twenties, thirties and forties, the golden age of boxing, men fought series to determine who was the better man.

I think I'll contend probably forever that Hagler would have established superiority over Ray if they had fought a series, and that deep down Ray knew this.

I think the crowd would have expected a little more aggression from Ray in a return and these things can sway the judges.

Perfectly fair though for me that Ray got the nod but didn't really prove he was the better man.

milkyboy wrote:Chris, due to the number of fawning 'thankyous', 'legend' etc it's a bit of a lengthy piece to post. No answers that you won't have seen before... At least of a boxing persuasion.

I know a lot of people think he's smug and can't stand him, but allowing for some self congratulatory cockiness that's generally said with a bit of tongue in cheek, I generally think he comes across pretty well.

... But then I've been called smug on occasion myself

Went to one of those evening with dos with Leonard and he is comfortay the best of the ones I have been to, has natural charisma, is articulate and a good story teller. Never really had a problem with Ray, if you're willing to get in a ring with the likes of Hagler, Hearns and Duran you can be as cokcy as you like for me.

We hear a lot these days about how Hagler supposedly chased Leonard for a rematch obsessively for about a year after their fight, while Leonard ignored his calls. On the outset that makes all the sense in the world, but digging a bit deeper there's evidence to suggest that this is down to a bit of revisionism on Hagler's part, Herman.

Think I've probably posted this before, but he gave this interview five months after the fight in which he said he wasn't really interested in fighting Leonard again, because a) he knew in his heart he'd already beaten him and wouldn't expect any fairer a shake from the judges next time if he couldn't knock Leonard out, and b) Leonard had vacated the Middleweight title basically straight after the fight anyway, and it was the status of world champion that Hagler wanted back more than anything, rather than beating Leonard specifically.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066497/4/index.htm

Don't need to read it all, but a couple of key quotes:

"That's all I want, peace and time. As far as the fight game goes, I'm gonna sit back and watch and see what happens now."

"If I were to walk out of this game of boxing, I'd hate to walk out of it with this bitterness. But I'm going to take time out. I don't know if I'm going to fight again. Leonard doesn't have anything I want right now, except the satisfaction of whupping him. But that ain't what I want. I want my belts that they took."

As I said though, Hagler has a different version of events these days which are quite widely accepted. Probably a six and half a dozen kind of deal. I don't think Leonard would have been in any rush to fight Hagler again, and Marvin would have been more up for it of the pair, but at the same time he wasn't champing at the bit or really forcing Leonard's hand. Suspect the disappointment of the Leonard loss just dimmed whatever fire he had left. Saying that he wanted to avenge it would have been the expected reaction and on autopilot his natural instincts probably forced him to say it, but at the time it seems to have been a little half-hearted.

I've read that Hagler wasn't interested in a rematch but I've also read that he was interested in a rematch but Hagler thought that he should have got an immediate rematch and shouldn't have had to wait over a year for a return date.

As for revisionism, Leonard stated that he was coming back for just one fight against Hagler but then went and had five more, but in his book, says he was open to a Hagler rematch.

If Hagler needs to get his story straight then so does Leonard.

Hagler's inferiority complex meant he kept changing his mind !!

and Leonard's coke habit meant that he frequently had hallucinations or seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there, as well as often feeling dizzy or light headed. So when he says that he was open to a rematch, you have to wonder, what was his state of mind when he said that?

Do you believe a liar like Leonard when he said he had a coke habit atila?

milkyboy wrote:Do you believe a liar like Leonard when he said he had a coke habit atila?

yes.

If Leonard said that he had a 12 inch Winkle, I'd think he was lying, but which famous person ever says he had a coke problem when they don't? It's not the kind of lie that's going to do him any favours.

Welcome back jabba