SUGAR RAY LEONARD QUOTES

Legacy & Greatness

“Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.”

“If you never know failure, you will never know success.”

“People can do more than they ever believe they can do. Physically, mentally, academically. You have to be pushed. It hurts. But it’s worth it, and it’s a great thing.”

“Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materialising.”

“We’re all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating up on people.”

“I came from nothing and achieved humungous fame and fortune. But I worked hard. I had discipline and determination. I had that ice in me.”

“You get these moments in the ring that live forever. That’s what Muhammad Ali accomplished, and I hope that I have too.”

Sugar Ray Leonard was well-acquainted and compared with Muhummad Ali

Fighting

“I made an instant connection with boxing right away. Boxing became such a part of me. I ate boxing, I slept boxing, I lived boxing. Boxing was a way of expressing myself because I was not that outspoken.”

“Boxing is a sport, but it’s also entertainment. I wanted to transcend the sport and be considered just not as a fighter, or a champion, but someone very special.”

“Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.”

“There will always be something about two men in the ring – a mystique because it’s pure man-to-man competition. Because of the history has and the tradition it holds, boxing will always have that mystique.”

“Fighters display two things. They display confidence, or they display a look that says, ‘I’m not sure.’

“My very best memory of Montreal [1976 Olympics], was the moment inside the Olympic arena when I was waiting under the stadium and those majestic gates opened up. It was a whole other world.”

“I’m a competitor and a very proud man. If a guy beats me once, he’ll have to do it again to make me believe him.”

“To be the best, you need to spend hours and hours running, hitting the speed bag, lifting weights and focusing on weights.”

“I want my fights to be seen as plays that have a beginning, a middle and an end.”

“At 14, I was the most disciplined guy around. I would get up at 5am in the morning and run five miles, and then go to school. Sometimes I would run behind the school bus, and the kids thought I was just crazy. I knew what I wanted.”

“I’ll think, if this is his first punch, how are the others gonna feel? That’s the only fear have for myself.”

“Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There’s nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring. On the downside, you meet a lot of really bad people in boxing, at all stages of your career.”

“I went through real darkness, but the ring was my light. That was the one place I felt safe. I could control what happened in the ring. My heart turned icy.”

“I’m one of the most optimistic persons in the world. I always believed that – there’s another shot, another chance. In boxing, I never gave up. I kept trying, kept trying. Even when things seemed so dim, I continued to push forward to make something happen in my favour.”

“People try to live vicariously through fighters, but it’s one-on-one; it’s primal. There’s no other feeling like it. The problem for me was accepting it – that nothing compares to being champ.”

“Ali’s belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it’s become my own philosophy.”

“I run three to four times a week. I go down to Orange County in California and I run all the time..all the time. You see the oceans, the trees. I like running in hot weather. I like to sweat and get all those toxins out of my system. I thoroughly enjoy it.”

“When I was fighting, I would look to excite the crowds with a bolo punch or something taunting. Looking back, they were legal – but not sportsmanlike. I don’t recommend another boxer try them. But we looked more to make the robot fights dramatic first and realistic second.”