The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring

by Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Arkush

Overview

In his New York Times bestselling memoir, one of America’s greatest boxing legends faces his single greatest competitor: himself

“Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world. Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest. He would never stop fighting.”—Muhammad Ali

In Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, a black man could get into the newspapers in one of two ways: crime—or boxing. “Sugar” Ray Leonard chose to fight. After winning a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, Ray wanted to call it quits and go to college, but his family’s financial needs made him go pro. Boxing history was made. All the while, another, darker Ray—one overwhelmed by depression, rage, drug addiction, sexual abuse, and greed—battled for dominance. In The Big Fight, Ray comes to terms with both these men and shares a brutally honest and remarkably inspiring portrait of the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of a true fighter—inside and outside the ring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780452298040
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	425,428
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sugar Ray Leonard worked as a boxing analyst for ABC and HBO after retiring from the ring. He lives with his wife and two children in California.

Michael Arkush is an award-winning sportswriter and has written thirteen books, including The Last Season with Phil Jackson, The Big Fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, "Rush!" the bestselling unauthorized biography of Rush Limbaugh, and Fairways and Dreams. Arkush lives in Oak View, California, with his wife, Pauletta.

Read an Excerpt

My eyes never lie. There they are, open wide, in the mirror of the dressing room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Those eyes would reveal which of the two dueling personalities would enter the ring as I took on the most intimidating opponent of my career: Marvin Hagler . . . Would it be Sugar Ray Leonard, true American hero since capturing the gold medal in Montreal more than a decade earlier? Sugar Ray was resilient, fearless, unwilling to accept failure. The smile and innocence of a child would be gone, replaced in the ring by a man filled with rage he did not understand . . . Or would it be Ray Leonard, the part-time boxer at the age of thirty whose best was well behind him, his days and nights wasted on fights which never made the headlines, fights he lost over and over, to alcohol and cocaine abuse and depression?

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Big Fight"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Sugar Ray Leonard.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Palmer Park 1

2 "My Journey Has Ended" 42

3 From Vega to Vegas 71

4 All the Marbles 92

5 Manos de Piedra 118

6 No Más 147

7 The Showdown 168

8 Seeing a New Future 190

9 "I Am Back" 213

10 Simply Marvelous 229

11 Finding Love Again 261

12 Peace at Last 278

Acknowledgments 296

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

The intelligence and self-reflection that helped Sugar Ray become one of the greatest fighters of his generation, have also stood him in good stead outside the arena."—The Boston Globe

“Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world. Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest. He would never stop fighting.”—Muhammad Ali

From the Publisher

 “The intelligence and self-reflection that helped Sugar Ray become one of the greatest fighters of his generation, have also stood him in good stead outside the arena.”

The Boston Globe

In this moving memoir, boxing legend Leonard tells his story of growing up as a ghetto kid whose athletic skills lifted him into a world of fame for which he was ill-prepared. Born in 1956, Ray Charles Leonard grew up near Washington, D.C., in an African-American suburb.. A shy boy, Ray was goaded by an older brother to enter the ring, where he discovered a talent for the sport. Ray's meteoric rise through the amateur ranks led to a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics. With a flashy style and a media-ready persona, "Sugar Ray" became a big draw as a pro and fought in some of the most lucrative boxing matches of his era. Leonard frames his memoir around the most important event of his career—his middleweight title fight with Marvin Hagler in 1987. Leonard hadn't fought since 1984 yet he managed to win a split decision. The true focus of the book, however, is Leonard's struggles with celebrity. He writes honestly of the many affairs he had while married, as well as his addiction to alcohol and cocaine. Few of our cultural icons look at themselves so clearly, and it's a tribute to Leonard's insightfulness that he makes his story such a gripping one. (June)

Publishers Weekly

The 1976 Olympic gold medal winner here chronicles a life that hasn't been all glow. Having risen from poverty, Leonard turned pro after his Olympic win and discovered just how corrupt boxing could be. He also discovered alcohol, drugs, and the joys of infidelity, and he's forthright about the bad choices he made. Buy wherever sports are hot.

Library Journal

The Olympics Gold Medal winner in boxing was raised in a poor household just outside of Washington, DC. Much is made of his two personalities: the champ “Sugar Ray,” who is an embattled egotist, and “Ray,” an evolving mature adult. Leonard recounts the chronological course of his life, routinely blaming others for his excesses and abuses until the very end of the volume. While the work is extremely detailed as to the recent history and facts of professional boxing, it is not all that enlightening relative to Leonard’s inner demons. The narration has a colloquial style and uses essentially identical inflection in every sentence. The endings of sentences also tend to trail off in volume. This audiobook would be best for Leonard’s fans and those with an enthusiastic interest in “the sweet science.” W.A.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JULY 2011 - AudioFile

The Olympics Gold Medal winner in boxing was raised in a poor household just outside of Washington, DC. Much is made of his two personalities: the champ “Sugar Ray,” who is an embattled egotist, and “Ray,” an evolving mature adult. Leonard recounts the chronological course of his life, routinely blaming others for his excesses and abuses until the very end of the volume. While the work is extremely detailed as to the recent history and facts of professional boxing, it is not all that enlightening relative to Leonard’s inner demons. The narration has a colloquial style and uses essentially identical inflection in every sentence. The endings of sentences also tend to trail off in volume. This audiobook would be best for Leonard’s fans and those with an enthusiastic interest in “the sweet science.” W.A.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JULY 2011 - AudioFile

Not a knockout, but a revealing confession from a champ who was often accused of being a packaged TV commodity.

Leonard was the right fighter at the right time—an Olympic gold medalist, articulate, handsome and personable, at a time when the retirement of Muhammad Ali left boxing hungry for another standard-bearer (and Howard Cosell eager for a new buddy to tout). Yet, little known to the American public, he was also an abuser of cocaine, alcohol and ultimately of his wife. Now clean and sober for four years and happily remarried, he takes full responsibility for his transgressions—"Looking back, I can offer no defense for my conduct. I was wrong"—without absolving the women who threw themselves at him (more beautiful and greedy the more famous he became), the family and friends who put their financial considerations above his health and even trainer Angelo Dundee, whom he inherited from Ali, and who the author plainly believes has claimed more credit than he deserves. Though the thematic arc is that of a redemption story, most of that redemption—remarriage, sobriety, a second family that he treats much better than the first—is crammed into a final chapter or two. The bulk of the autobiography alternates between his exploits in the ring (of which he is justifiably proud) and his weakness away from it, with all the sex, drugs and vacillation between retirement and recommitment. Particularly revelatory is the book's illumination of the psychology of this most physical sport. It also celebrates the bond between opponents that outsiders can never experience: "For months, the opponent was the enemy, the major obstacle standing in the path of greater earnings and greater fame. Yet, as most of us who fight for a living come to recognize, some sooner than others, the opponent is also a partner on the same journey."

Perhaps a little too conveniently, the book makes a split between slick, privileged, cocky "Sugar Ray" and the more insecure and vulnerable "Ray Leonard." Guess who's still standing at the end?

Kirkus Reviews