“If You Never Know Failure, You Will Never Know Success”: How Sugar Ray Leonard Recovered From Addiction
A 1976 Olympic gold medalist. A 5-division world champion. A record holder of 36 wins, with only 3 loses and 1 draw, with 25 of his wins coming by way of knockout. A hall of famer. A fitting match for the legends in the likes of Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Wilfredo Benitez and, in their now famous trilogy, Roberto Duran.
Only a handful of people have the accolades that a man like Sugar Ray Leonard has in his resume.
This earned him the right to be considered as a legend in the field of sports and one of boxing’s all time greats.
Taking on the alias of another legend carrying the same nickname, “Sugar Ray” began mesmerizing the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s boxing scene as soon as he stepped on the canvas.
Although gifted with an amazing talent, the boxing champ only wanted at first to compete in the Olympics and then go straight to college.
But life had different plans for him.
Shortly after he competed in the 1976 Olympics, his father, Cicero Leonard, fell ill. The situation then forced him to continue his stint in the sport of professional boxing in order to sustain the survival of his family.
His brilliance in the boxing ring, together with his confident, unassuming and overall “good guy” demeanor during matches, greatly helped him in winning not only the fights but also the hearts of the audiences, above all else.
However, as time went by, the boxer, just like any other legends, had his fair share of lowlights both inside and outside of the ring.
When the Champion Becomes the Defeated
Not even legends like Sugar Ray are spared from facing a lot of demons on their own.
The legendary boxer, at the height of his prime, suffered a devastating injury after a fight with another one of the boxing greats, Tommy Hearns. Leonard unfortunately had severely damaged his retina, to the point of detachment, even, and was warned by the doctors that if he would continue to fight — which is what he loved the most and felt the most confident at doing — he might be taking the risk of being blinded permanently.
The disheartened athlete in turn began losing his mental soundness. Relying mostly on drugs and alcohol to save him from the pain of hearing the news, the once driven champ had lost every single amount of motivation left within him and ultimately decided to turn his head away from the sport he loved the most.
This turning point of his life led him to spending most of his time in the worst possible way — intaking insane amounts of cocaine and vodka, losing all his earnings amounting to more than $100 million for the vices, and completely abandoning any care he had about what taking such substances would do to his body.
And it only gets worse from there.
Now a very frustrated man, the battle between his health and career started sinking deep. His slowly yet steadily dying marriage did not mix well with his pivotal eye injury, pushing him further to desperately look for something to help him with the suffering he was going through.
The Gift of Having an Iron Chin: When The Legend Refused to Get Knocked Out
From being forced to retire at the height of his career to being totally absorbed by his drug and alcohol addiction, the boxing champ managed to prove his greatness once more both in the ring and in real life as he made his comeback to the squared canvas after he beat his own demons.
Unfortunately, while he was gone, the boxing scene had already changed face. Fighters continued to evolve and improve over time, leaving the once acclaimed boxer on the sidelines.
As a natural born fighter, Leonard struggled to tame his fighting instincts and continued to fight despite aging. And, as expected, the said match didn’t end on a favorable term, garnering two losses and a draw in his last three/four fights.
Leonard, unable to catch up, had to see reality for himself the hard way.
The fighter went on to take the decision to retire for good as he lost his precious middleweight title in a final, deciding match in 1991 to Terry Norris, a rising boxing star at the time.
“It’s no longer my time,” he proudly admitted defeat as he finally put his career to an end.
RELAPSE
The boxer admitted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that he had “many moments and many nights where, I will wake up and I won’t remember what the hell just happened that night.”
He then said that one of the main reasons why he got his hands on drugs and booze is because he was nowhere near feeling satisfied.
“I wasn’t happy,” the boxer said in an interview with Hotboxin’, “as much as I had [possessions], I had low self-esteem. I didn’t feel good about myself and when I tried or was offered cocaine, it was one of those missing ingredients that I needed to feel better about myself. Then, alcohol became an issue because to me, alcohol and cocaine mix very well,” he then added.
Leonard openly admitted in that same interview that he nearly lost his mind because of the continuous, abusive intake of cocaine and alcohol, revealing he “nearly went over the bridge” as such self-destructive behavior became a habit he did every single day.
The boxer’s ex-wife, Juanita Leonard, used to say to her now former husband that he’s “two different people” as he has been a different person when he was inside and when he was outside of the ring. This apparently struck a nerve with Leonard, causing him to seek help for his growing alcohol problem.
The former champ’s addiction got into an even more serious case after he finally decided to hang up the gloves and leave boxing for good. Facing the weight of his feet walking away from his passion, the boxer admitted that fighters like him had to “leave the ring they have dedicated all their lives into” all of a sudden and next thing they knew, they were already “burdened by drugs and alcohol”.
Looking back to what it had been, the former boxing icon had a hard time shifting his focus back to the thing he treasured the most, leading him to make one bad decision after another.
Saved By The Bell: The Boxer’s Greatest Comeback of All Time
“I wanted my mother and father to see their son sober again before they left this earth for good,” Leonard shared as he talked about how he finally decided to cut drugs completely off his life.
In his self-authored article entitled What We Need Now, More than Ever, the hall-of -fame boxer wrote that he almost “slipped out of sobriety” again after his father’s passing.
“When you’re an alcoholic, it’s times like those that test you the most. When you’re seeking comfort. When you’re confused or in pain. When the shit hits the fan.”
But, despite all the temptations, the boxer went on to live the next 14 years of his life completely sober — free from all the things he thought were an escape. He realized that all those things that he was turning into when things got bad were exactly the problem.
Now a wiser man, he has been actively sharing about what it feels like to experience battling addiction. He also helps out other athletes like himself to avoid the things that he did back in his heydays. While continuously showing support and giving out a helping hand to those athletes who are going through the same problems that he used to struggle with, Leonard became a living proof that coming clean is possible.
Do you happen to know someone who had to go through a similar thing? Let us know their recovery story in the comment section and help improve the lives of others through shared experiences.
Leave a Reply