Sugar Ray Leonard

“Boxing will always be in my life.”

“Duran always disturbs me. The guy is just weird. Before our first fight, both Duran and his wife gave my wife the finger.”

“Except for Ali, fighters had never been marketable.”

“I run three to four times a week. I go down to Orange County in California and I run all the time... all the time. You see the oceans, the trees. I like running in hot weather. I like to sweat and get all those toxins out of my system. I thoroughly enjoy it.”

“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.”

“I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me.”

“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.”

“You just don't heal that easy unless you're young.”

“We're all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating up on people.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“When I turned pro, Muhammad Ali was laying back, and I was able to fill up an area that was empty.”

“I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of.”

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

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

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

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