E-mail a friendSugar Ray Leonard
airdate March 24, 2005
Voted by ESPN one of the top 25 athletes of the last quarter century, Sugar Ray Leonard fought his way into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He learned to box at age 14 and won Olympic gold in '76. After turning pro in '77, he won world championships in three weight classes - a record that still stands. After he retired, Leonard found success as a TV broadcaster-entrepreneur. He plays host and mentor on NBC's The Contender. He also participates in various causes benefiting needy children's charities.
Sugar Ray Leonard
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome legendary boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard to this program, the former Olympic gold medalist and fighter of the decade during the eighties. He's lending his talent these days to television in the form of the new reality series "The Contender." The show airs Sunday nights on NBC. Here, now, a scene from "The Contender."
Ahmed Kaddour: 6-time world champion Sugar Ray? You know, I can play him. Make him look bad. That's the best.
Sugar Ray Leonard: High, low, high. Nice work.
Ahmed: Thank you, Ray.
Leonard: I think Ahmed got a little excited. I don't take it too seriously. You know, was he disrespectful? Hey, you call it what you want. Ahmed gets a little, uh...
Man: Yeah, carried away. Till you hit him on the
Leonard: You know, one thing about it, I wasn't throwing that many shots back at Ahmed, so when he fights, we'll see the difference. Whether or not he can, you know, throw those kind of punches when someone's firin' back at you.
Tavis: Sugar Ray, good to see you.
Leonard: Good seeing you, man.
Tavis: Glad to have you on. Congrats on the show, first of all.
Leonard: Well, thank you, man. It's a wonderful show, and you fall in love with, you know, the guys. The boxers.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. Let me just start here. The show last Sunday...and I'll let you set it up because I think people pretty much know the story. It's been in the news. I thought the way you all handled it last Sunday night was amazing. But talk to me about last Sunday night's episode.
Leonard: Well, it was more of a testimony to the young man Najai Turpin, who, unfortunately, took his life. 23 years old. A bright future. A young man who was a single parent, has a young daughter named Anyae. She's 2 years old.
Tavis: Who is too cute.
Leonard: Too cute. I mean, she's so beautiful. And the thing that really hurt us the most--hurt me the most, I should say, is that I got a chance to know this kid, this young man. For 16, 18 weeks, he's there, you know, in Los Angeles, training. He's happy. He's very shy. He's introverted. To himself. But, in the ring, he was full of confidence and full of joy, and all he talked about was Anyae his daughter. Makin' a difference.
Tavis: Well, that was a heavy show. It was impossible watching that show--I think a lot of fight fans, certainly guys, you know, love the sport because it's tough and it's aggressive and it's all that. You couldn't have been anybody last Sunday, male or female, and watch that show, and not have your heartstrings pulled. I mean, a lot of people cried watching this.
Leonard: Without question. And the fact that he decided to fight Sergio Mora, who is a great fighter. And Sergio was a tough guy, but Najai wanted to fight the best. He wanted to compete against the best guys out there, and he came up short. And all he talked about, again, was his daughter, you know. Failing to win the fight, he felt he let his daughter down. He felt he let his daughter down.
Tavis: Let me play devil's advocate with you, and one always takes his life into his hands sitting across from Sugar Ray Leonard, asking him a devil's advocate question, 'cause you might get popped in the eye right quick asking the wrong question. Why do we need a show like "The Contender?" And I ask that only because you did what you did. You put it down in the ring in the real way, the true way, going after a title, going after belts. That's the way we honor and respect and revere real fighters. What's a TV show like "The Contender" bring us or do for the boxing game that isn't done in the ring going after a title?
Leonard: It justifies everything. "The Contender" is really that vehicle that I had back in the day when I was on network television. The exposure factor is so important, because all of a sudden now not just boxing fans but nonboxing fans, they get a chance to see you, what you're about, why you do what you do, who you are, where you come from. And I think it creates caring fans. And caring fans are the best fans because they have a vested interest in the individual. "The Contender" does that for these boxers. These boxers have never been given a fair shake. They've been taken advantage of. They've been screwed by unscrupulous people and promoters and managers and what have you. But here they have a chance to get a fair shake. It says a lot.
Tavis: Um, do you ever get a chance to watch the great fights that they rerun on...
Leonard: Yes.
Tavis: I watch those things all the time. That Hagler, whoo!
Leonard: It's reminiscing.
Tavis: It's amazing. I was at your house not long ago. And I was complimenting--he knows. I was at Sugar Ray's house not long ago for an event. I was complimenting him on how gorgeous his house is. He said, "Tavis, Hagler built me this house." Hagler built this house for me. It's a very nice house, if you can imagine. But when you get a chance to look back and watch these great fights, man, on ESPN or...what--what...-do you enjoy watching it? A lot of folk come on this show, and they say to me they don't like to watch--not just fighters, but artists, period. They don't like to watch themselves, they don't like to listen to themselves, they don't like to read their work once they write it. Does Sugar like watching Sugar?
Leonard: Oh, yeah. I watch myself. Pop it on. I sit there and I watch it. You know, I fought Tommy Hearns. I don't watch the second one. The second one was...
Tavis: Yeah, you don't wanna see that one. Yeah, yeah. Ha ha ha! I don't wanna see that one, he said. All right, go ahead.
Leonard: I watch Marvin Hagler, Benitez. I don't watch Camacho fight. I don't watch that fight. The ones I lost, I don't watch those.
Tavis: Only the ones you won. Speaking of ones you've won, Duran, the "No Mas" fight, uh, the guy you were named after--actually, your name--you're named after 2 people really, I guess. Ray Robinson, great boxer, and Sugar--no, and Ray Charles.
Leonard: Right.
Tavis: Exactly. Um, Ray Charles sang that song that only he could sing the way he sang it--"America the Beautiful" before your Duran fight.
Leonard: "No Mas" fight.
Tavis: Take me back to that moment what you remember about--'cause you were pumped after Ray Charles put his thing down.
Leonard: It was a rematch without question to fight Duran. So I'm in New Orleans. I'm in the ring. I was very confident from the very beginning.
Tavis: You always were sure.
Leonard: Very confident.
Tavis: Even the fights you lost, you were still confident?
Leonard: Yeah. But I wasn't on always. But Ray Charles, I looked across the ring and Ray Charles is there, you know, my namesake, singing "America the Beautiful." That gave me additional confidence. I mean, it's like, "Yeah. U.S.A., Sugar Ray, yeah!" And I looked at Duran's eyes, and he was like, "Oh, this is a bad night for me." Because he felt the karma, the vibe. It was very, very powerful. And when Ray Charles finished singing, he came over to me. He said, "I love you, son." That was it. I could have beat Tyson, I was so pumped up, man. I was so pumped up and so focused that if I had that same feeling every fight, I would never lose.
Tavis: You and Senator John McCain is, I guess, the name that comes to mind immediately. There are others. But John McCain, a former pugilist himself, wants to reform boxing and feels that Congress needs to get involved in the act. We just saw, of course, Congress convene these steroid hearings, steroid use in baseball. What's your sense of whether Congress has a role to play here, whether Congress oughta play a role, how does boxing reform itself, or does it need to be reformed by somebody on the outside?
Leonard: I don't particularly care who reforms the sport. It needs that.
Tavis: It does need it, though?
Leonard: Without question. I think what Senator John McCain is doing, or attempting to do, is very commendable, without question. But something needs to be done--more needs to be done, I should say. Boxing is a sport that doesn't have any constituents. There's no one to look after us. When the boxers lose or when they're down and out, there's no pension plan. There's nothing that's gonna benefit them, unlike other sports--baseball, basketball, whatever. And until boxing receives that or get that, it'll all be looked down upon as a sport that's barbaric because of the nature of the sport. Um, there's a lot of money out there, so that can be done. Something can be done. Something should be done.
Tavis: Who do you like these days? I asked that--Winky Wright was on this program just last week and we all know the big fight was coming up, coming up soon with Winky and Tito. Who do you like, never mind the division? Who do you like these days? I mean, in the heavyweight division, do you like anybody? Because everybody's down on the fact that there ain't nobody left in the heavyweight division. Who do you like in the game these days? Other than folk we see Sunday nights on "The Contender?" Who do you like in the boxing game?
Leonard: No, I like Winky. Winky was a guy who was never given a shot because, you know, he's a southpaw. He fights the opposite way. And he's tough, he's smart--very smart. And, um, now that he's champ, I mean--Tito, that's gonna be a fight.
Tavis: Who do you like in that fight?
Leonard: I like Winky. Yeah, Winky--and people say, well, Tito--I like Tito also, but I think Winky is a fighter with such brains and heart.
Tavis: Kinda reminds you of Sugar Ray Leonard, doesn't it?
Leonard: A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Floyd Mayweather, Jr., this fighter here is very, very good. Very, very good. I mean, just a couple guys who I think...stand out.
Tavis: Speaking of standing out, one of the things that stands out in my mind every time I think of you or see you--I guess a whole lotta Americans are the same way. All I gotta do is give you the line, you know what I'm talking about. "Naw, that's just my dad." Ha ha ha ha!
Leonard: That "Naw, just my dad," is 31 years old.
Tavis: I was about to ask you. Is he 31 now?
Leonard: 31 years old. Lives in Atlanta.
Tavis: Wow!
Leonard: And, uh, mortgage broker, you know. I'm a grandfather, you know. It's
great. I man, Little Ray is...he's a good kid. I'm so proud of him. Like Jarel, my 20-year-old, and then I have 2 other kids, um...Camille, who's--he's 8 years old and Daniel Ray who's 4. But I love my kids. I'm so proud of my kids. Because they've been through a lot, man, Little Ray in particular, because he was--you know, it was me and Juanita at the time, the fame and the fortune, then we divorced. And the kids are deeply affected not by peer pressure but by everything else combined. So Ray turned out OK.
Tavis: I'm not even sure I know who the product was. I just remember the commercial, "Naw, that's just my dad." What was the product?
Leonard: 7-Up.
Tavis: 7-Up. That's funny. I remember you and your son in the commercial--I was sitting there while you were talking, trying to think of the product.
Leonard: That was 20-something years ago.
Tavis: Yeah. I'm gettin' old, too, so...I'm forgettin' stuff! Little Ray is gettin' older and so is little Tavis. Can't remember the products anymore. Um...aside submitting all your time doing this "Contender," of course, which is obviously doing very well for NBC, how do you spend your time?
Leonard: I do motivational speaking around the world.
Tavis: As a matter of fact, I'm glad you said that. I've heard--I know somebody who heard you give a speech. Was it power?
Leonard: Power.
Tavis: The power concept. Which means...
Leonard: Prepare, overcome, win every round. And, uh, boxing's a metaphor of life. You're a fighter. You fight for respect, you fight for your family. We're all fighters in some shape or form in some aspect, and I use that. And it comes across very well.
Tavis: Yeah. Well, the best ever. And maybe the most handsome ever. Of course, if Ali's watching--other than you, champ. Ha ha ha ha! He always thought he was the prettiest anyway. Sugar, I'm always happy to see you, man. Glad to have you on. All the best on the new show "The Contender."
Leonard: Thank you.
Tavis: And nice to have you here. "The Contender," at WWW.CONTENDERYAHOO.COM.
CONTENDERYAHOO.COM is where you'll find out more about the show. That's our show for tonight. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and as always, keep the faith.
Back to March 24, 2005