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The New York Times bestselling autobiography<br />
of one of America’s greatest boxing legends<br />
Along with Muhammad Ali, “Sugar” Ray Leonard remains<br />
one of the most popular and successful boxers of all time.<br />
But who was the man behind the cool façade?<br />
In Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, a black man could<br />
get into the newspapers only one of two ways: crime—or<br />
boxing. Ray chose to fight. After winning a gold medal<br />
at the 1976 Olympics, his family’s financial needs made<br />
him go pro. All the while, another, darker Ray—one<br />
overwhelmed by depression, rage, drug addiction, sexual<br />
abuse, and greed—battled for dominance. The Big Fight<br />
is a top-notch sports memoir and an honest and inspiring<br />
portrait of the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of a true<br />
fighter.<br />
“The intelligence and self-reflection that<br />
helped Sugar Ray become one of the<br />
greatest fighters of his generation, have<br />
also stood him in good stead outside the<br />
arena.” —The Boston Globe<br />
“Champions come and go, but to be<br />
legendary you got to have heart, more<br />
heart than the next man, more than<br />
anyone in the world. Ray’s heart was<br />
bigger than all the rest. He would never<br />
stop fighting.” —Muhammad Ali<br />
My eyes never lie. There they are, open wide, in the mirror of the dressing room at Caesars<br />
Palace in Las Vegas. Those eyes would reveal which of the two dueling personalities would<br />
enter the ring as I took on the most intimidating opponent of my career: Marvin Hagler . . .<br />
Would it be Sugar Ray Leonard, true American hero since capturing the gold medal in<br />
Montreal more than a decade earlier? Sugar Ray was resilient, fearless, unwilling to accept<br />
failure. The smile and innocence of a child would be gone, replaced in the ring by a man<br />
filled with rage he did not understand . . . Or would it be Ray Leonard, the part-time boxer<br />
at the age of thirty whose best was well behind him, his days and nights wasted on fights<br />
which never made the headlines, fights he lost over and over, to alcohol and cocaine abuse<br />
and depression?<br />
suGGesteD oRDeR<br />
J u n e • P l u m e<br />
PLUME<br />
23
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