Sports Speaker and Olympic Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Leonard is undeniably one of the best athletes in the history of the sport of boxing. Known as the Boxer of the Decade in the 1980’s Sugar Ray competed in five separate weight classes, all of which he won world titles by defeating such competitors as Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns, and many others.
Sugar Ray won an Olympic Gold medal in the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal for the Light Welterweight division. Shortly after his retirement in 1997, he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. At the conclusion of his professional boxing career, Leonard’s record stood at 36-3-1 with 25 knockouts.
Since retiring from the sport, Sugar Ray Leonard has gone on to explore other endeavors on the small screen. In 2011, Leonard participated in season 12 of the hit dancing competition series, Dancing With the Stars, where he starred alongside professional athlete Hines Ward, reality TV star Kendra Wilkinson, supermodel Petra Nemcova, television star Wendy Williams, and film stars Ralph Macchio and Kirstie Alley. Sugar Ray Leonerd hosted the show the Contender for three seasons alongside cohost Sylvester Stallone, and has made many appearances in sports broadcasting as a boxing analyst for such networks as ABC, CBS, HBO, ESPN NBC and EPIX. In 2010 Leonard starred in the Oscar winning film The Fighter alongside actors Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, and Amy Adams. As the godfather to the reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, Sugar Ray also makes frequent appearances on the TV reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Outside the ring, Leonard has partnered with several companies for product endorsements, including 7 Up, Nabisco, Ford, Revlon, Coca-Cola, and EA Sports. In 2012 Sugar Ray Leonard published his New York Times bestselling memoir, The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring, which instantly received rave reviews from The Boston Globe and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.