Did Leonards eye rob him of his absolute zenith?

WASHINGTON, March 30— Former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard acknowledged today that he took cocaine and drank heavily during the early 1980's when his career was jeopardized by an eye injury..


Leonard, who has appeared in nationally broadcast anti-drug public service announcements, said he indulged in cocaine for three years, quitting in early 1986.

 

SRL always partied hard but this was mainly womanizing in his prime . His brother Roger though
got addicted to drugs and later recovered. SRL stated he only starting to take drugs after his career
was in jeopardy by eye injury and said " He took cocaine to forget about my problem my dilemma "
Leonard denied ever using drugs while training for a fight. "
SRL was the ultimate competitor who loved the heat of the battle , the camaraderie of training camp
and was always motivated when the odds were against him. Example was the 1976 Olympics when
he was to face Cuban ko machine Andres Aldama . Who was going into the final had a 5 ko streak and
AA went on later in 1980 go on to win gold in Moscow defeating John Mugabi for gold medal.
Leonard said he sneaked in to watch AA fight in the semi final and AA a southpaw hit his opponent
with a left hand and his opponent was out for 10 mins after the punch and had to be taken
out on a stretcher .SRL said everybody in the room said the same thing would happen to SRL. SRL then
sneaked out and said he was so angry and this steeled SRL focus and in the final SRL put on a great
performance in defeating AA by tko to win gold medal.

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Had we seen SRL at his peak no but we missed some great battles as he most likely would have faced
Aaron Pryor and Hagler and that might have meant we would have never seen a Hagler vs Hearns.

 

Thanks for posting the recap and the video. Leonard was sensational in that fight and in the '76 Games (as was the U.S. team, with Howard Davis Jr. winning the Val Barker Trophy). I had forgotten Leonard's display of power in that fight, outslugging the hard-hitting Cuban favorite.

 

Another vote for no, not really.

Just who was he taking on in that timeframe anyway? A motivated and dangerous Hearns? I seriously doubt the Hagler fight happens.

Regardless, the trouble with additional rounds and additional sparring is the subtraction it ultimately causes. Wear and tear. Like his hands. And the deterioration of his reflexes--and he was a reflexes fighter of the highest order. Perhaps good fights for us, the boxing fans but his downward slide happens earlier. It wasn't as if he had 50 or 60 fights in his career anyway. You'd only be adding maybe 3 or 4 and the subtraction factor would be happening.

 

Srl was one tough muther f...er
And a lot of heart.would have luv to have. Seen him fight marv around 83.
If you get a chance read his bio good book.also read dundees book my view from the corner a lot of inside info on
Ray charles leonard and others.