Sugar Ray Leonard famous quotes

Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Graduation #Wise #Dream

Inactivity is the biggest sin in boxing.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Motivational #Boxing #Sin

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.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Country #Kissing #People

You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Running #Thinking #Winning

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

#Motivational #Sports #Boxing

Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Boxing #Killers

I learned how to sumon, from somewhere deep within, the extra will I didn't know I possessed. Knowing it was there, and could be tapped again, gave me the boost of confidence I would rely on for years to come.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Knowing #Years #Boost

Ali's belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it's become my own philosophy
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Philosophy #Belief

I consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We've all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Blessed #People

Generally, the more weight you put on, the less effective you are
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Weight

I think I've become one of the best finishers in boxing; if I hurt a guy, I normally take him out.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Hurt #Thinking #Boxing

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

#Hurt #Believe #People

I think an athlete should be honest. I know it's difficult, but if a guy knocked me on my can, I couldn't very well say, I slipped.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Athlete #Thinking #Guy

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

#Fighting #Talent #Made

My ambition is not to be just a good fighter. I want to be great, something special.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Ambition #Special #Want

I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Boxing #Guy

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.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Believe #Men

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

#Religious #Believe #I Believe

Boxing was the only career where I wouldn't have to start out at the bottom. I had a good resume.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Careers #Boxing

Bruce Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to go beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want the public to see a knockout in the making.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Artist #Boxing

I want to be great, something special.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Special #Want

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

#Sports #Running #Focus

The only way for a fighter to get back in shape is to fight his way back.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Way #Shapes

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

#Sports #Kids #Golf

You just don't heal that easy unless you're young
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Easy #Young #Heal

No one but myself thought I could beat guys like Tommy Hearns or Roberto Duran
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Guy #Beats

Before the start of the '76 Olympics, I'd had 160 amateur fights. I won 155 and lost five
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Olympics #Lost

I wanted to be like Bruce Jenner.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Wanted

Before I fight, I always pray that no one gets hurt.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Hurt #Fighting #Feelings

I remember all the important fights. Vividly. In detail.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Important #Details

Everything you want to know about a fighter is in his eyes. The look in his eyes tells the truth.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Eye #Want #Looks

Were all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating up on people.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Skills #People #Given

Someone once said there was a comparison between Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson. Believe me, there's no comparison. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Believe #Sugar #Rays

It's different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman, and that takes something away from it
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Different #Businessman

When I turned pro, Muhammad Ali was laying back, and I was able to fill up an area that was empty.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Able #Muhammad #Empty

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it's better to give than to receive.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Motivational #Athlete #Boxing

It is wonderful. It truly is. It is the only thing that is real! It's you against me, it's challenging another guy's manhood. With gloves. Words cannot describe that feeling of being a man, of being a gladiator, of being a warrior. It's irreplaceable.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Real #Warrior #Men

I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Strong #Boxers #Fighter

They say that I'm stubborn, and my wife says that, too, but it's paid off so far.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Wife #Stubborn #My Wife

I'm a free agent. I haven't allowed any promoters to have exclusive options on my fight. I don't need a promoter.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Agents #Needs

My intention was to fight Durán ASAP because I knew Durán's habits. I knew he would indulge himself, he'd gain 40–50 lbs and then sweat it off to make 147.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Sweat #Gains

Except for Ali, fighters had never been marketable
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighter

I'll think, If this is his first punch, how are the others gonna feel? That's the only fear I have for myself
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Thinking #Firsts #Feels

I want my fights to be seen as plays that have a beginning, a middle and an end
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Fighting #Play #Want

Sugar Ray Robinson was probably the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Pounds #Rays #Sugar

I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural. From that moment I became so embedded in boxing. I found a friend in boxing.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Boxing #Gloves #Moments

I had a drug problem. I'd go to parties, take a leak, and there was cocaine right there. I was 25 when it started, rich, famous, and retired.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Party #Drug #Problem

The Ricky Hatton that beat Kostya Tszyu in 2005 can beat Floyd Mayweather, he was so focused and in such amazing physical shape that he would have given anybody at that level a tough time.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Tough Times #Levels #Shapes

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

#Sports #Training #Weight

A fighter never knows when it's the last bell. He doesn't want to face that.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Lasts #Faces #Bells

Duran always disturbs me. The guy is just weird. Before our first fight, both Duran and his wife gave my wife the finger.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Fighting #Wife

I wouldnt change anything because the mistakes and the hurt are as important as all the great fights. They made me who I am today.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Hurt #Mistake #Fighting

Tommy Hearns seemed like an indestructible machine, so to beat him, I think that was my defining moment, the pinnacle.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Thinking #Defining Moments #Machines

While each of us faces enormous challenges every day, it's not the sins we commit that will define us, its how we respond to them.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Mma #Challenges #Faces

It's hard to talk about yourself
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#About Yourself

Holyfield is nothing but class, and I think he's a breath of fresh air for the sport.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Thinking #Class

Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Dream #Helping Others #Benefits

We're all endowed with God-given talents. Mine happens to be hitting people in the head.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#People #Hitting #Talent

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

#Long #Range #Contracts

Although it was a great accomplishment to win a gold medal, as soon as they put it on you, that's it; your career is over.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Winning #Careers

I lay around and wonder why you were always there for me.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Friendship #Wonder #Always There For Me

Spread your love and fly.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Misinterpretation #Spread

I've always believed that you can be whatever you want to be if you are willing to sacrifice and dedicate yourself.
-- Sugar Ray Leonard

#Sports #Sacrifice #Want

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

#Kids #Italian #Hair

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

#Want #Able #Reason