Sugar Ray Leonard Quotes

Author Image

Sugar Ray Leonard

Profession : Boxer

Birth : May 17, 1956

Aaron Pryor wants to get into the ring with me. He wants to be able to retire, and he will. For health reasons.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

At 14, I was the most disciplined guy around. I would get up at 5 o'clock 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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

Boxing's a poor man's sport. We can't afford to play golf or tennis. It is what it is. It's kept so many kids off the street. It kept me off the street.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

Looking back, yes, I made too many comebacks. But each comeback I was 100 percent sure that I would win. I never came back for the money, because I didn't need it. The adulation I was getting anyway in other spheres. But I'm a guy who likes to see how close he can get to the edge of the mountain - that's what makes me tick.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

If I hadn't had the talent, the networks wouldn't have televised my fights. No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues.

Sugar Ray Leonard

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.

Sugar Ray Leonard

You don't appreciate things until they're gone. For me, I miss my friends; I don't miss boxing, I miss the camaraderie.

Sugar Ray Leonard