'7 Up' [02] TV ad featuring Sugar Ray Leonard - 1981 - YouTube.

Sarge Johnson, assistant coach of the US Olympic Boxing Team, said to Dave Jacobs, "That kid you got is sweet as sugar". The nickname stuck.

He retired after the fight with a record of 36 wins (25 by knockout), 3 losses, and 1 draw. Later in 1997 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. After his final retirement, Leonard served as a boxing commentator and television host.

There were two sides to Sugar Ray Leonard. Outside the ring, there was his charismatic personality and heavenly smile, which did wonders for his Q-rating. Inside the ropes, there was his animal instinct, looking for bruises or scar tissue on opponents, something that he could brutally take advantage of.

Blinding speed, tremendous power and great charm turned Leonard into an immediate media favorite. The late Howard Cosell called Leonard the "new Muhammed Ali." In 1977, at the age of twenty, Leonard won his first professional fight, setting the stage for a collection of the most memorable fights in history.

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 retirement in the ring immediately after the Norris fight.

BoxingSugar Ray Leonard / Martial artBoxing is a combat sport and a martial art in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring. Wikipedia

The Ring magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1979 and 1981, while the Boxing Writers Association of America named him Fighter of the Year in 1976, 1979, and 1981. In 2002, Leonard was voted by The Ring as the ninth greatest fighter of the last 80 years.

cocaine Sugar Ray Leonard said yesterday that he used cocaine from 1983 to 1986 and also drank alcohol heavily during those three years following surgery for a detached retina that threatened to end his boxing career.

In the film The Fighter, Eklund claims to have knocked down Leonard in their match. While the film acknowledges the slip, a video of the fight shows a punch/push and Leonard falling to the canvas on his back. The official verdict by the referee Tommy Rawson was a slip.

Fans flinched as much as Sugar Ray Leonard himself when Roberto Duran landed a right-handed punch on Leonard's left eye late in the 11th round of their fight in Las Vegas last week. That was the eye, the famous left eye; the eye that would, it was thought in 1982, end his career.

Both are lightning-fast, but Mayweather is fast for one or two shots, whereas Leonard is fast for six or seven. In terms of stamina, Mayweather is a true deep-water fighter – he's always better late in fights – but Leonard was a 15-round juggernaut.” So who wins?