Straight off his ignominious beat on “Dancing with the Stars” punching tale Sugar Ray Leonard has returned into the public mind with a tell-all guide about his illustrious existence titled “Sugar Ray Leonard, The Large Battle In and Out of the Actual Ring.”
His reputation of Olympic hero and globe punching titles belied his struggle with frustration, substance abuse, melancholy, and greed. A genuine Horatio Alger tale of rags to wealth, privacy to popularity, beset by the lure these earnings wrought. This particular honest portrayal of the life in an ever-dimming limelight bespeaks to the problems of the unanchored-rudderless lifestyle.
My personal link with Ray Leonard started, like so many, being an observing enthusiast throughout his Olympic years. As his celebrity ascended so did my personal curiosity. His punching abilities symbolized the second arriving of Muhammad Ali–the original individuals champion. Actually, his punching theatrics resembled all that was distinctive to the best Champ ever in the Ali Shuffle to the Rope-a-Dope.
Once the crescendo of great interest demanded a showdown between the 2 finest welter-weights on the planet, I, and also a close friend, rapidly purchased 2 ringside seats at the, heretofore, incredible cost of $400.00 for each seat. In addition, we leased and I piloted a personal aircraft to the occasion in Vegas.
This lived up to everybody’s anticipation and is right now in the pantheon of punching immortals, the actual hall of fame of gate receipts, the actual history of legendary fights that only Howard Cosell might openly rival a World War 2 fight.