Boxing: Ray of light fights on

The small girl looked up at the man walking in the grounds of the White House. He was black, short hair, wearing a suit and shades.

"Are you the President?" Sugar Ray Leonard looked at her. He nodded, smiled. She skipped away, delighted.

"I couldn't resist," says Leonard. "She opened her mouth so wide. I just cracked up."

You can understand the wee girl's mistake. Even these days, at 53, Leonard exudes a kind of presidential aura.

In boxing circles, he is still regarded (Manny Pacquiao, please excuse us) as one of, if not the, greatest pound-for-pound boxers ever.

Note the use of the word boxer, not fighter.

For real boxing fans, Leonard was a genius. He could move, he could feint, he could dodge punches, dart, sting and hurt. His handspeed and combinations were phenomenal and he was innovative.

His fights against Roberto Duran (twice, including the famous "no mas" fight when he regained his world championship), Tommy "Hit Man" Hearns and Marvin Hagler are remembered as some of the best in the history of the sport.

But let's get back to the White House. Leonard was a fighter too, having to draw deeper than most of us ever do in stocks of courage and commitment around various eye injuries and in his most famous bouts. But he acknowledges that pales next to the fight against diabetes.

Leonard knows the disease well - his father had it and the family's inability to cope with the medical bills was the prime motivation for Leonard turning professional after he won the light welterweight Olympic gold medal in 1976 and had already made the first of what was to be many retirements.

He was at the White House last month to testify to a US senate committee on the need to increase government funding for diabetes research. Leonard has been chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk For The Cure events and supports those fighting the disease through his Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation.

Diabetes costs the US about US$174 billion annually but it is the human cost that concerns Leonard, particularly for kids under threat or who have already developed the disease.

"It is a horrible, horrible thing [diabetes] particularly if you don't have the health care or the money to try and cope with it and I have always felt for the thousands or even millions of people who are affected," Leonard says.

He used his skills as a motivational speaker - he speaks all round the world, including to Fortune 500 companies and is coming to Auckland to speak at a September 1 dinner in support of the Phobic Trust and the Tua-Cameron fight on October 3 - at the senate hearing to try to prod the lawmakers into devoting more money to diabetes research.

"My fighting years, my bouts, my titles, they are a kind of legacy but, man, helping to find a cure for diabetes by persuading that more money be devoted to it - that's a real legacy, wouldn't you say?" Sometimes, on a telephone call, you can tell when someone is grinning. This is one of those times.

LEONARD WASN'T grinning, however, when he was 16 years old, a beaten boxer at the 1972 US Olympic trials - and sobbing at his defeat. His trainer came into the room and said: "Sugar man, what you doing? Keep working hard, keep at it and you'll be back here more experienced."

That was how the "Sugar" Ray handle was born - a direct reference to Sugar Ray Robinson, another fighter with blistering handspeed, power and skill.

"He was right and I have to say that I really responded to the discipline of running, training, working hard every day; I was so disciplined. My brother Roger [who got his little brother into the gym after "beating up on me all the time; just for being there"] used to say to me 'I could have been a champion too if I'd had your discipline'. He was right, too, he could have been."

Leonard was an unusual candidate for boxing fame before he embraced the discipline of the sport.

"I was introverted, quiet, shy, scared of my own shadow, a bit of a mama's boy. I would keep my own company and play with imaginary toys, didn't go out much. I wasn't athletic like my brothers, I wasn't into girls - I was a bit of a wallflower with two left feet."

His metamorphosis was stunning. Anyone who saw his footwork, blinding speed and punching skill - not to mention the innovative, showman "bolo" punch - will understand why the phenomenally tough Duran sat on his stool, declining to answer the bell when Leonard regained his crown from the Panamanian.

His best fight, he says, was his reach-into-the-depths win over Hearns to reunify the various titles; his worst when he should never have returned to the ring and lost in embarrassing fashion to Terry Norris and Hector Comacho.

Asked why he chose to return, a failing often common to great fighters, he says: "It was defiance. All my life, I felt I had the ability to overcome logic and ego plays a part. I shouldn't have come back."

Leonard takes his time answering a question on the state of boxing these days.

"I'd like to say it is thriving but it isn't - it's surviving, but it's a resilient sport. There isn't an abundance of talent any more and I think the big change is that there are few household names; few stars that really shine. Fans keep up with the sport but we have lost the ability to put the sport in front of ordinary people who might be fans if they could only see the fights."

The reason for that, he says, is the migration of boxing from free-to-air TV to pay-per-view - ironic, perhaps, as that is how Tua-Cameron is being televised.

Leonard remembers Tua well and his crushing demolition of former world champion Michael Moorer in particular. He is not sure about Shane Cameron.

Asked whether he feels Tua might have hung on too long, as Leonard himself did, he slips that punch easily.

"I always act as an ambassador for the sport. If David and Shane can fight together and bring some spark to the sport and to that event, then I say good for them."

* An Evening with Sugar Ray Leonard and Friends, September 1, Ellerslie Convention Centre.

* Tua v Cameron, October 3, Mystery Creek, tickets still available at $199.

Sugar's sweets
* 1976: Gold medal, Montreal Olympics, light welterweight. Retires.
* 1976: Turns professional to pay medical bills for father. Wins first 25 fights.
* 1979: WBC world welterweight champion, TKO over Wilfred Benitez.
* 1980: Loses title to Roberto Duran, unanimous decision.
* 1980: Regains title from Duran in "no mas" rematch ended when Duran didn't answer the bell.
* 1981: Beats Ayub Kaluele to win WBA world junior middleweight title. * 1981: Beats Tommy Hearns in welterweight unification bout; undisputed world champion.
* 1982: Retires after eye injury.
* 1983: Announces comeback; fights Kevin Howard, retires again.
* 1986: Announces comeback.
* 1987: Beats Marvin Hagler, split decision, to win WBC world middleweight crown.
* 1988: Beats Donny Lalonde by KO to win WBC super middleweight and WBC light-heavyweight titles.
* 1989: Fights Hearns in controversial draw; wins unanimous decision in third fight against Duran.
* 1990: Knocked down twice in clear loss to Terry Norris. Retires.
* 1997: Now aged 40, takes fight against Hector Comacho and is knocked out. Retires.