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Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing Autograph
A great Colour 5x7 Photograph of Sugar Ray
Leonard in his prime. Signed in Black Sharpie during his
recent visit to Great Britain.
Sugar Ray Leonard
SOLD
Sugar Ray Leonard surfaced in the public's
imagination after winning a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics.
He won the WBC welterweight title in 1979 after stopping
fellow Hall-of-Famer Wilfred Benitez in a violent chess
match that pitted two of the game's master technicians.
After one successful defense, Leonard faced
legendary lightweight champion Roberto Duran in what may
be the most anticipated non-heavyweight fight in history.
In a fast-paced battle, Duran dethroned Leonard with a unanimous
15-round decision. Leonard regained the title when Duran
quit in the eighth-round of their rematch.
In 1981, Leonard climbed the scale and knocked
out junior middleweight champion Ayube Kalule. He then returned
to the welterweight division for a unification showdown
with WBA champ Thomas Hearns. Leonard and Hearns waged a
memorable war but Leonard, behind on all three scorecards,
managed to knock Hearns out in the 14th round.
After one more fight, Leonard, suffering from
a detatched retina in his left eye, retired. He returned
to the ring in 1984 and knocked out Kevin Howard only to
retire again.
After nearly three years of inactivity, Leonard
returned again and pulled off the Upset of the Decade when
he outpointed Marvin Hagler to win the middleweight title
in 1987. Leonard added titles four and five in November
1988 when he recovered from an early knockdown to stop power-punching
Canadian Donny Lalonde. At stake that night was Lalonde's
WBC light heavyweight title and the vacant WBC super middleweight
title.
Leonard made two successful title defenses
of the super middleweight title, fighting to a controversial
draw with Hearns and decisioning Duran in their third and
final encounter.
Leonard retired again, but could not stay
away. At age 34, he challenged WBC super welterweight champion
Terry Norris in 1991. He was dropped twice and lost by unanimous
decision at Madison Square Garden.
The former five-division champion announced
his retirment in the ring immediately after the Norris fight.
But in March 1997, he launched another unsuccessful comeback,
which ended via a fifth-round TKO to Hector Camacho. It
was the first time Leonard had ever been stopped.
