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" 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. "

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" 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

You

Parents

" Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct. "

" I am excited to share my archive pictures and footage. I'll also share announcements about current events and success stories from the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation to help fight diabetes and child obesity. "

" 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. "

" Aaron Pryor wants to get into the ring with me. He wants to be able to retire, and he will. For health reasons. "

" 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

Discipline

Ice

" 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. "

" To be the best, you need to spend hours and hours and hours running, hitting the speed bag, lifting weights and focusing on training. "

" It's different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman, and that takes something away from it. "

" I learned to run backwards from Muhammad Ali. He told me about running backwards because you try to imitate everything you do in the ring, so sometimes you back up. So you have to train your legs to go backwards. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

Train

Sometimes

" 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. "

" 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

Proud

Man

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

" The Olympics meant everything to me. Going through them is like nothing else you will ever experience. For those few weeks, you are in another world. At that point, I couldn't see how there could ever be anything better. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" We're all given some sort of skill in life. Mine just happens to be beating up on people. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

Life

Just

" Joe Frazier was the epitome of a champion. I mean, here is a guy who was total old school, blue collar, who would fight anybody. You know, he didn't tell you he was the best fighter pound for pound. "

" I wanted to win the gold medal and then go home and further my education in college. I had no intentions whatsoever to become a professional fighter because I had heard horror stories about former boxers who made money but, in the end, ended up with nothing. I didn't want to be one of those guys. "

" Boxing will always be in my life. "

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

" 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. "

" The time to stop is when the other guy hits you more than you hit him. "

" Ray Leonard is more the family man, kind of quiet. He's not as outgoing as Sugar Ray Leonard. Sugar Ray Leonard was very determined, very focused, very outgoing and very selfish, if you will. There are two different individuals there. "

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

" When the trainer talks to the fighter, there's a connection. You don't always have to say much. "

" The thing about boxers is that there's respect there. You beat me, and I may not like it, but you know what, deep down inside, I respect you. And that's the code of honor. "

Sugar Ray Leonard

Honor

You

" I didn't excel too highly in school, but I felt that I was moving ahead - and not just in boxing - but in life. "

" 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. "