Top 50 Sugar Ray Leonard Quotes

Boxing should focus on pitting champion versus champion – those are the fights that everyone wants to see. The sports also needs to work on developing new heroes and personalities. I’d like to see more vignettes on fighters, focusing on their lives, goals and stories. Boxers need to be larger than life.

When you’re a boxer, there is a lot of downtime and long periods of inactivity.

Generally, the more weight you put on, the less effective you are.

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 favor.

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it’s better to give than to receive.

I never met a person as determined as my mother. From working hard for six kids to just trying to keep the household down or maintain my father’s discipline, my dad, I’m so much like my father too. My father was so introverted, quiet, shy, nice. I got attributes from my father and mother.

Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing.

I learned to run backwards from Muhammad Ali. He told me about running backwards because you try to imitate everything you do in the ring, so sometimes you back up. So you have to train your legs to go backwards.

I watched Ali, studied Ali, and I studied Sugar Ray Robinson. I watched them display showmanship. I watched them use pizzazz, personality, and charisma. I took things from them and borrowed things from them because boxing is entertainment.

I watched Muhammad Ali, how when he would speak, how it was such a thing of beauty. It sounded so wonderful. And I wanted to be like him.

When I’m not in training. I’ll walk around the streets at 153, but it’s not solid; it’s my socializing weight.

I’ve never believed in tying myself up in a long-range contract, and I’ve been very outspoken on that subject.

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

I’m not religious, but I believe that what I have is a gift, and I respect it and live up to it.

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

I enjoy the school run and being a dad. Boxing will always be with me. I like that.

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.

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

Although it was a great accomplishment to win a gold medal, as soon as they put it on you, that’s it; your career is over.

Holyfield is nothing but class, and I think he’s a breath of fresh air for the sport.

I run with music all the time. I cannot run without my iPod. I have everything. Teddy Pendergrass. Luther Van Dross. Michael Jackson. Outkast. If an Usher song comes on and it’s fast, I go fast.

I was not from a middle-class family at all. I did not have middle-class possessions and what have you. But I had middle-class parents who gave me what was needed to survive in society.

I made mistakes, but I’m luckier than most. I’ve got a successful business, lots of fans who think a lot of me and a family who loves me.

Boxing is individual, although there’s a team concept because you need a great corner, you need a great trainer, you need a great prep man, you need all of these things, but it’s more of a Mano a Mano; it’s more you versus me. I miss that time in training camp and Dad and Mom cooking meals. It was one big family.

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

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

When the trainer talks to the fighter, there’s a connection. You don’t always have to say much.

I always expect unexpected challenges. Boxing is not an easy sport.

You just don’t heal that easy unless you’re young.

Muhammad Ali was a god, an idol and an icon. He was boxing. Any kid that had the opportunity to talk to Ali, to get advice from Muhammad Ali, was privileged. He’s always given me time to ask questions, although I was so in awe that I didn’t ask questions.

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

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 boxing has and the tradition it holds, boxing will always have a that mystique.

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.

To say what I would have been if I wasn’t boxing, I don’t know why, but I always wanted to be an x-ray technician or a substitute teacher. Those two occupations always stuck with me, maybe because my substitute teacher didn’t give us homework, or because I’ve always had x-rays of my hands.

Boxing was the only career where I wouldn’t have to start out at the bottom. I had a good resume.

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.

I wanted to win the gold medal and then go home and further my education in college. I had no intentions whatsoever to become a professional fighter because I had heard horror stories about former boxers who made money but, in the end, ended up with nothing. I didn’t want to be one of those guys.

Before the start of the ’76 Olympics, I’d had 160 amateur fights. I won 155 and lost five.

Without boxing, because of my neighborhoods, who knows what would have happened to me. It was always about following the leader. And I definitely was not a leader. Boxing gave me discipline; a sense of self. It made me more outspoken. It gave me more confidence.

Before I fight, I always pray that no one gets hurt.

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.

Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.

The Olympics meant everything to me. Going through them is like nothing else you will ever experience. For those few weeks, you are in another world. At that point, I couldn’t see how there could ever be anything better.

I’m a free agent. I haven’t allowed any promoters to have exclusive options on my fight. I don’t need a promoter.

I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.

I didn’t excel too highly in school, but I felt that I was moving ahead – and not just in boxing – but in life.

In Italy, I had an Afro, and a lot of the kids came up and felt my hair. It really was funny. I wish I had understood Italian.

My very best memory of Montreal 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.

They say that I’m stubborn, and my wife says that, too, but it’s paid off so far.

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.