The Olympics Gold Medal winner in boxing was raised in a poor household just outside of Washington, DC. Much is made of his two personalities: the champ “Sugar Ray,” who is an embattled egotist, and “Ray,” an evolving mature adult. Leonard recounts the chronological course of his life, routinely blaming others for his excesses and abuses until the very end of the volume. While the work is extremely detailed as to the recent history and facts of professional boxing, it is not all that enlightening relative to Leonard’s inner demons. The narration has a colloquial style and uses essentially identical inflection in every sentence. The endings of sentences also tend to trail off in volume. This audiobook would be best for Leonard’s fans and those with an enthusiastic interest in “the sweet science.” W.A.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring
Narrated by Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray LeonardUnabridged — 9 hours, 29 minutes
The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring
Narrated by Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray LeonardUnabridged — 9 hours, 29 minutes
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Overview
Editorial Reviews
In this moving memoir, boxing legend Leonard tells his story of growing up as a ghetto kid whose athletic skills lifted him into a world of fame for which he was ill-prepared. Born in 1956, Ray Charles Leonard grew up near Washington, D.C., in an African-American suburb.. A shy boy, Ray was goaded by an older brother to enter the ring, where he discovered a talent for the sport. Ray's meteoric rise through the amateur ranks led to a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics. With a flashy style and a media-ready persona, "Sugar Ray" became a big draw as a pro and fought in some of the most lucrative boxing matches of his era. Leonard frames his memoir around the most important event of his career—his middleweight title fight with Marvin Hagler in 1987. Leonard hadn't fought since 1984 yet he managed to win a split decision. The true focus of the book, however, is Leonard's struggles with celebrity. He writes honestly of the many affairs he had while married, as well as his addiction to alcohol and cocaine. Few of our cultural icons look at themselves so clearly, and it's a tribute to Leonard's insightfulness that he makes his story such a gripping one. (June)
The intelligence and self-reflection that helped Sugar Ray become one of the greatest fighters of his generation, have also stood him in good stead outside the arena."—The Boston Globe
“Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world. Ray's heart was bigger than all the rest. He would never stop fighting.”—Muhammad Ali
The 1976 Olympic gold medal winner here chronicles a life that hasn't been all glow. Having risen from poverty, Leonard turned pro after his Olympic win and discovered just how corrupt boxing could be. He also discovered alcohol, drugs, and the joys of infidelity, and he's forthright about the bad choices he made. Buy wherever sports are hot.
The Olympics Gold Medal winner in boxing was raised in a poor household just outside of Washington, DC. Much is made of his two personalities: the champ “Sugar Ray,” who is an embattled egotist, and “Ray,” an evolving mature adult. Leonard recounts the chronological course of his life, routinely blaming others for his excesses and abuses until the very end of the volume. While the work is extremely detailed as to the recent history and facts of professional boxing, it is not all that enlightening relative to Leonard’s inner demons. The narration has a colloquial style and uses essentially identical inflection in every sentence. The endings of sentences also tend to trail off in volume. This audiobook would be best for Leonard’s fans and those with an enthusiastic interest in “the sweet science.” W.A.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Not a knockout, but a revealing confession from a champ who was often accused of being a packaged TV commodity.
Leonard was the right fighter at the right time—an Olympic gold medalist, articulate, handsome and personable, at a time when the retirement of Muhammad Ali left boxing hungry for another standard-bearer (and Howard Cosell eager for a new buddy to tout). Yet, little known to the American public, he was also an abuser of cocaine, alcohol and ultimately of his wife. Now clean and sober for four years and happily remarried, he takes full responsibility for his transgressions—"Looking back, I can offer no defense for my conduct. I was wrong"—without absolving the women who threw themselves at him (more beautiful and greedy the more famous he became), the family and friends who put their financial considerations above his health and even trainer Angelo Dundee, whom he inherited from Ali, and who the author plainly believes has claimed more credit than he deserves. Though the thematic arc is that of a redemption story, most of that redemption—remarriage, sobriety, a second family that he treats much better than the first—is crammed into a final chapter or two. The bulk of the autobiography alternates between his exploits in the ring (of which he is justifiably proud) and his weakness away from it, with all the sex, drugs and vacillation between retirement and recommitment. Particularly revelatory is the book's illumination of the psychology of this most physical sport. It also celebrates the bond between opponents that outsiders can never experience: "For months, the opponent was the enemy, the major obstacle standing in the path of greater earnings and greater fame. Yet, as most of us who fight for a living come to recognize, some sooner than others, the opponent is also a partner on the same journey."
Perhaps a little too conveniently, the book makes a split between slick, privileged, cocky "Sugar Ray" and the more insecure and vulnerable "Ray Leonard." Guess who's still standing at the end?
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169348729 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 06/07/2011 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
My eyes never lie. There they are, open wide, in the mirror of the dressing room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Those eyes would reveal which of the two dueling personalities would enter the ring as I took on the most intimidating opponent of my career: Marvin Hagler . . . Would it be Sugar Ray Leonard, true American hero since capturing the gold medal in Montreal more than a decade earlier? Sugar Ray was resilient, fearless, unwilling to accept failure. The smile and innocence of a child would be gone, replaced in the ring by a man filled with rage he did not understand . . . Or would it be Ray Leonard, the part-time boxer at the age of thirty whose best was well behind him, his days and nights wasted on fights which never made the headlines, fights he lost over and over, to alcohol and cocaine abuse and depression?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Big Fight"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Sugar Ray Leonard.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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