Ray Leonard's Book

[marbleheadmaui]

I love my Kindle!

I just finished Ray Leonard's new book (written with Fight of the Century author Michael Arkush) and it's pretty good!

The personal things Leonard reveals go far deeper than the attempted sexual assault by a coach. Leonard is unusually candid and self-critical about his drug use, alcoholism, infidelity, brushes with the law, mistreatment of his first wife etc. Those parts of the book show a man with many demons not always being at bay. It delves into the curses and temptations of celebrity, as well as the several narrow escapes a young Ray Leonard had, any one of which might have turned him into Derrick Holmes.

For me the more interesting stuff is the boxing stuff. The authors do a wonderful job creating two voices. The uncertain, angry, sometimes alienated, remorseful Ray Leonard discussing personal things and the forceful, concise, supremely confident and clear as crystal Sugar Ray. I'm not going to give away things, but he explains the mindset necessary to be a pro and a champion and discusses how important film study of old fighters and potential opponents and himself were. Ray gives his impression of the brilliant way Angelo Dundee brought him along as a pro and what he learned from several early fights. He tells of three critical pieces of advice Muhammad Ali gave him at three critical moments in his career. Guess who recognized what Roberto Duran's psychological weakness was? Ray explains how his corner fit together and who played what role and extols the virtues of Mike Trainer who made Ray so rich, so fast he could have retired after the Benitez fight and been set for life. The weaknesses of Benitez, Hearns, Hagler, Kalule and of course Duran and how he exploited them are critical reading for a fan as is Leonard's description of skills like spinning off the ropes, learning to take a punch and how to think about a fight.

The two things I'll take away are Ray's final, heartbreaking meeting with a destroyed Wilfredo Benitez and the way Ray thinks of himself as a fighter. The money mattered to him always, but the challenge was the thing. In a key passage he talks about retiring after the Duran loss, after all he was financially set and had actually gained in prestige. But what he decided he couldn't handle was that some people would think he had ducked a rematch and that for a professional fighter, ducking was worse than losing.

A great book? Nope. Enough boxing driven nuggets to intrigue? You betcha!