Sugar Ray Leonard

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

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

“I made an instant connection with boxing right away. Boxing became such a part of me. I ate boxing, I slept boxing, I lived boxing. Boxing was a way of expressing myself because I was not that outspoken.”

“I didn't excel too highly in school, but I felt that I was moving ahead - and not just in boxing - but in life.”

“I asked my kids, 'Do you know what Papa used to do.' They said, 'You were a boxer, you won the Olympics!' And that's what they know.”

“Ray Leonard is more the family man, kind of quiet. He's not as outgoing as Sugar Ray Leonard. Sugar Ray Leonard was very determined, very focused, very outgoing and very selfish, if you will. There are two different individuals there.”

“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.”

“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.”

“When we got back to the U.S., I wanted to kiss the ground after seeing what people in other countries are denied or don't have.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“It's different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman, and that takes something away from it.”

“I'm a competitor and a very proud man. If a guy beats me once, he'll have to do it again to make me believe him.”

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

“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.”

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