Sugar Ray Leonard quotes: sugary sayings from the boxing great.
“I’ve always believed that you can be whatever you want to be if you are willing to sacrifice and dedicate yourself.”
“Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.”
“Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing.”
“You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win.”
“We assume the risks. That’s what makes a great champion. We care, but you can’t let that be a burden to you.”
“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.”
“My toughest fight was myself. For me to disclose and let things out was not easy because we don’t want to seem weak or like we are different, but I learned that it’s okay.”
“While each of us faces enormous challenges every day, it’s not the sins we commit that will define us, it’s how we respond to them.”
“I always expect unexpected challenges.”
“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.”
“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.”
“They say that I’m stubborn, and my wife says that too, but it’s paid off so far.”
“I’m one of the most optimistic people in the world. I always believed that – there’s another shot, another chance. In boxing, I never gave up. I kept trying, kept trying. Even when things seemed so dim, I continued to push forward to make something happen in my favor.”
“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.”
“At 14, I was the most disciplined guy around. I would get up at five o’clock in the morning and run five miles, and then go to school. Sometimes I would run behind the school bus, and the kids thought I was just crazy. I knew what I wanted.”
“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.”
“I’m so opposite of my profession. No one – particularly my mother and father – ever thought I was going to be a boxer because I always felt that football and baseball were too dangerous. I was just such a quiet kid.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it’s better to give than to receive.”
“When I was 15 or 16 and I started climbing up the ladder of success in amateur boxing, a reporter asked me, ‘What do you want to be?’ I think he was expecting me to say, ‘A champion.’ I said, ‘I want to be special.’ I don’t know why I said that, but I didn’t just want to be a fighter. I wanted to have an impact with people, particularly kids.”
“I learned how to summon, from somewhere deep within, the extra will I didn’t know I possessed. Knowing it was there, and could be tapped again, gave me the boost of confidence I would rely on for years to come.”
“I had a drug problem. I’d go to parties, take a leak, and there was cocaine right there. I was 25 when it started – rich, famous and retired.”
“I learned that I had character defects, that I was allergic to alcohol and drugs, and that I had an obsession with all the bad stuff. But thank God that I woke and that I had good people around me to support me. There’s not much more I can say about it. You have to want to be a better person.”
“It’s very difficult to talk about my character defects and my behavior, which was not good. For me, it was not being as good a father or husband as I could have been. It’s overcoming obstacles that I faced and being able to have the courage to let go of any demons or past experiences that’s been in my heart for over 30 years. I’ve finally let that go and I feel lighter. I feel better.”
“Ali’s belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it’s become my own philosophy.”
“No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues.”
“It is wonderful. It truly is. It is the only thing that is real! It’s you against me, it’s challenging another guy’s manhood. With gloves. Words cannot describe that feeling of being a man, of being a gladiator, of being a warrior. It’s irreplaceable.”
“It’s different when you become a professional, because you also have to become a businessman, and that takes something away from it.”
“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.”
“Boxing will always be in my life.”
“I think an athlete should be honest. I know it’s difficult, but if a guy knocked me on my can, I couldn’t very well say, ‘I slipped.'”
“We’re all given some sort of skill in life. I consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We’ve all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up.”
“You don’t play boxing. You really don’t. You play golf, you play tennis, but you don’t play boxing.”
“The only way for a fighter to get back in shape is to fight his way back.”
“Just respect yourself and respect other people. At one point, it was all about me. It can’t always be about you. Celebrity is great and it’s fun and it’s fantastic, but at some point there has to be a balance and you have to understand the position of power that you have and not abuse it.”
“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.”
“I made mistakes, but I’m luckier than most. I’ve got a successful business, lots of fans who think a lot of me and a family who loves me.”
“I’m not religious, but I believe that what I have is a gift, and I respect it and live up to it.”
“Spread your love and fly.”
Related: George Foreman quotes.
