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" 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

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I want my fights to be seen as plays that have a beginning, a middle and an end. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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

" I always expect unexpected challenges. Boxing is not an easy sport. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" Looking back, yes, I made too many comebacks. But each comeback I was 100 percent sure that I would win. I never came back for the money, because I didn't need it. The adulation I was getting anyway in other spheres. But I'm a guy who likes to see how close he can get to the edge of the mountain - that's what makes me tick. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I was not from a middle-class family at all. I did not have middle-class possessions and what have you. But I had middle-class parents who gave me what was needed to survive in society. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" Muhammad Ali was a god, an idol and an icon. He was boxing. Any kid that had the opportunity to talk to Ali, to get advice from Muhammad Ali, was privileged. He's always given me time to ask questions, although I was so in awe that I didn't ask questions. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I came from nothing and achieved humungous fame and fortune. But I worked hard. I had discipline and determination. I had that ice in me. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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

" It's hard to talk about yourself. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" Boxing will always be in my life. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I watched Muhammad Ali, how when he would speak, how it was such a thing of beauty. It sounded so wonderful. And I wanted to be like him. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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

" No one but myself thought I could beat guys like Tommy Hearns or Roberto Duran. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I went through real darkness, but the ring was my light. That was the one place I felt safe. I could control what happened in the ring. My heart turned icy. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I wouldn't 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

" I never met a person as determined as my mother. From working hard for six kids to just trying to keep the household down or maintain my father's discipline, my dad, I'm so much like my father too. My father was so introverted, quiet, shy, nice. I got attributes from my father and mother. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" Without boxing, because of my neighborhoods, who knows what would have happened to me. It was always about following the leader. And I definitely was not a leader. Boxing gave me discipline; a sense of self. It made me more outspoken. It gave me more confidence. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

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

Sugar Ray Leonard

" People try to live vicariously through fighters, but it's one-on-one; it's primal. There's no other feeling like it. The problem for me was accepting it - that nothing compares to being champ. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" I don't hold any regrets whatsoever about my life besides hurting people I loved. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

" 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

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

Sugar Ray Leonard