Leonard, Sugar Ray (1956-…), an American boxer, won world professional boxing titles in five weight classes. Leonard won the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight title in 1979, defeating Wilfred Benitez. He won the World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight title with a victory over Ayub Kalule in 1981. Leonard retired from boxing after eye surgery in 1982, but he made a comeback and defeated Marvin Hagler for the WBC middleweight title in 1987. Leonard won both the WBC super middleweight and light heavyweight titles in 1988 by defeating Donny Lalonde. In 1991, Leonard again announced his retirement as a boxer. However, he returned to boxing in 1997, losing to Hector Camacho. Leonard then said his retirement was final. He had a career professional record of 36 victories, 3 defeats, and 1 draw.
Ray Charles Leonard was born on May 17, 1956, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was nicknamed “Sugar” after former boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson. He first achieved prominence by winning the gold medal in the light welterweight class at the 1976 Olympic Summer Games in Montreal. Leonard wrote an autobiography, The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring (2011).
