"Sugar" Ray Leonard

Boxing isn't about being the mean, tough guy all the time. When you're in the ring it is, but not outside the ring. "Sugar" Ray Leonard proved that you can be a great boxer and a nice guy at the same time. No fighter has ever been loved more than Ray Leonard early in his career for two reasons: looks, and skills. And with those looks and skills he had no problem becoming the biggest athlete since Muhammed Ali. There also wasn't one pound for pound fighter he didn't beat. He beat Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, and Wilfred Benitez. There wasn't much more he could have accomplished when he retired due to an eye injury in 1984 after pulling apart Bruce Finch. After a lousy comeback in which he picked himself off the canvas for the first time in stopping unheralded journeyman Kevin Howard, he made a "dumb" decision to challenge Middleweight king Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Well the "dumb" decision was transformed into an Einstein decision when he out-boxed "Marvelous" Marvin to win a split-decision. Ray never returned to that form for the rest of his career though winning two more titles. "Sugar" devastatingly lost his last two bouts to Terry Norris and Hector Camacho.