In Book, Sugar Ray Leonard Says Coach Sexually Abused Him

YankeeFan · May 17, 2011

Boxing's version of Graham James?

Wonder if we'll learn more about this.

But by Page 36 of “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring,” to be published next month by Viking, Leonard has mentioned his cocaine use, growing up in a home with alcohol abuse and domestic violence, luckily surviving a car wreck with his mother at the wheel, almost drowning in a creek as a child who was unable to swim, and fathering a son at 17.

Two pages later, Leonard delivers the book’s bombshell, while indirectly addressing a growing concern in the sports industry at large. He reveals publicly for the first time that he was sexually abused as a young fighter by an unnamed “prominent Olympic boxing coach.”

Leonard writes that when the coach accompanied him as a 15-year-old and another young fighter to a boxing event in Utica, N.Y., in 1971, he had the teenagers take a bath in a tub of hot water and Epsom salts while he sat on the other side of the bathroom. They suspected “something a bit inappropriate” was occurring but did not want to question a strong male authority figure.

Several years later, Leonard describes sitting in a car in a deserted parking lot across from a recreation center, listening intently as the same coach, said to be in his late 40s, explained how much a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics would mean to his future.

He was flattered, filled with hope, as any young athlete would be. But he writes: “Before I knew it, he had unzipped my pants and put his hand, then mouth, on an area that has haunted me for life. I didn’t scream. I didn’t look at him. I just opened the door and ran.”

He adds that when he first decided to discuss the incident in the book, which is co-authored with Michael Arkush, he offered a version in which the abuser stopped before there was actual contact.

“That was painful enough,” Leonard writes. “But last year, after watching the actor Todd Bridges bare his soul on Oprah’s show about how he was sexually abused as a kid, I realized I would never be free unless I revealed the whole truth, no matter how much it hurt.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/sports/in-book-sugar-ray-leonard-says-coach-sexually-abused-him.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
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mrbio · May 17, 2011

Wow. This sure should help promote the book. What a spectacular fighter he was in his prime years. One of the best ever.

YankeeFan · May 19, 2011

Buzz Bissinger casts doubt on Leonard's story. That's pretty fucked up.

I happen to know Sugar Ray Leonard. I happen to know him well when it comes to the intimate details of his life. In 2007 and 2008, I spent hundreds of hours interviewing him for a screenplay that never came to fruition. The interviews were on tape and owned by the production company Redbird Cinema. In addition, Leonard had the contractual right to reject anything that he felt might not be appropriate. There was no reason for him to hold back and he did not hold back.

He went into great detail over all the aspects of his life both good—the triumphant victories over Roberto Duran and Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns and Marvin Hagler that made him world welterweight champion. But he spent just as much time on the bad—the abuse and terrorization of his first wife Juanita; his disenfranchisement from his children; the copious intake of cocaine followed by the copious intake of alcohol; the distrust that developed over everyone, including his own brother, as he became convinced that they only perceived him as a money pit; the firing of his best friend from childhood, who became so devastated that he turned to crack and prostitutes and contracted AIDS and was only visited once by Leonard in the hospital as he was dying. He was honest about his failings, and so brutal about them, that it became wrenching.

The one incident he never mentioned was the sexual abuse.

I keep asking myself why yesterday, given his wincing candor about so much else. Did something happen with that coach? Something must have. But was it embellished for the sake of a book about to be published?

Maybe after 35 years as a journalist I am too cynical. But at his peak, nobody in sports knew how to market himself better than Sugar Ray Leonard. And the revelation, 18 days before publication, has set off a publicity bonanza. The immediate effect—last time I looked approximately 350 stories had been written based on the Times story—has been what every author prays for.

Was he too embarrassed and ashamed to mention it to me? Perhaps. But Leonard told me things in terms of his own personal conduct equally as shocking and personally shameful as the allegation of being sexually abused. Such as hitting his wife Juanita while she was holding their child who was just several months old. Or, in the last fight they had before she left, taking out a gun and threatening to shoot himself.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-19/sugar-ray-leonards-sex-abuse-story-why-is-it-coming-out-now/#
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Mizzougrad96 · May 19, 2011

YankeeFan said:

Buzz Bissinger casts doubt on Leonard's story. That's pretty fucked up.

I happen to know Sugar Ray Leonard. I happen to know him well when it comes to the intimate details of his life. In 2007 and 2008, I spent hundreds of hours interviewing him for a screenplay that never came to fruition. The interviews were on tape and owned by the production company Redbird Cinema. In addition, Leonard had the contractual right to reject anything that he felt might not be appropriate. There was no reason for him to hold back and he did not hold back.

He went into great detail over all the aspects of his life both goodthe triumphant victories over Roberto Duran and Tommy The Hitman Hearns and Marvin Hagler that made him world welterweight champion. But he spent just as much time on the badthe abuse and terrorization of his first wife Juanita; his disenfranchisement from his children; the copious intake of cocaine followed by the copious intake of alcohol; the distrust that developed over everyone, including his own brother, as he became convinced that they only perceived him as a money pit; the firing of his best friend from childhood, who became so devastated that he turned to crack and prostitutes and contracted AIDS and was only visited once by Leonard in the hospital as he was dying. He was honest about his failings, and so brutal about them, that it became wrenching.

The one incident he never mentioned was the sexual abuse.

I keep asking myself why yesterday, given his wincing candor about so much else. Did something happen with that coach? Something must have. But was it embellished for the sake of a book about to be published?

Maybe after 35 years as a journalist I am too cynical. But at his peak, nobody in sports knew how to market himself better than Sugar Ray Leonard. And the revelation, 18 days before publication, has set off a publicity bonanza. The immediate effectlast time I looked approximately 350 stories had been written based on the Times storyhas been what every author prays for.

Was he too embarrassed and ashamed to mention it to me? Perhaps. But Leonard told me things in terms of his own personal conduct equally as shocking and personally shameful as the allegation of being sexually abused. Such as hitting his wife Juanita while she was holding their child who was just several months old. Or, in the last fight they had before she left, taking out a gun and threatening to shoot himself.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-19/sugar-ray-leonards-sex-abuse-story-why-is-it-coming-out-now/#
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Wow. Buzz has every right to his opinion, and to some extent, be pissed/weary of the revelation, but it might be a lot better served by keeping his opinion to himself, especially on that topic.

Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!! · May 19, 2011

Mizzougrad96 said:

YankeeFan said:

Buzz Bissinger casts doubt on Leonard's story. That's pretty fucked up.

I happen to know Sugar Ray Leonard. I happen to know him well when it comes to the intimate details of his life. In 2007 and 2008, I spent hundreds of hours interviewing him for a screenplay that never came to fruition. The interviews were on tape and owned by the production company Redbird Cinema. In addition, Leonard had the contractual right to reject anything that he felt might not be appropriate. There was no reason for him to hold back and he did not hold back.

He went into great detail over all the aspects of his life both good—the triumphant victories over Roberto Duran and Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns and Marvin Hagler that made him world welterweight champion. But he spent just as much time on the bad—the abuse and terrorization of his first wife Juanita; his disenfranchisement from his children; the copious intake of cocaine followed by the copious intake of alcohol; the distrust that developed over everyone, including his own brother, as he became convinced that they only perceived him as a money pit; the firing of his best friend from childhood, who became so devastated that he turned to crack and prostitutes and contracted AIDS and was only visited once by Leonard in the hospital as he was dying. He was honest about his failings, and so brutal about them, that it became wrenching.

The one incident he never mentioned was the sexual abuse.

I keep asking myself why yesterday, given his wincing candor about so much else. Did something happen with that coach? Something must have. But was it embellished for the sake of a book about to be published?

Maybe after 35 years as a journalist I am too cynical. But at his peak, nobody in sports knew how to market himself better than Sugar Ray Leonard. And the revelation, 18 days before publication, has set off a publicity bonanza. The immediate effect—last time I looked approximately 350 stories had been written based on the Times story—has been what every author prays for.

Was he too embarrassed and ashamed to mention it to me? Perhaps. But Leonard told me things in terms of his own personal conduct equally as shocking and personally shameful as the allegation of being sexually abused. Such as hitting his wife Juanita while she was holding their child who was just several months old. Or, in the last fight they had before she left, taking out a gun and threatening to shoot himself.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-19/sugar-ray-leonards-sex-abuse-story-why-is-it-coming-out-now/#
Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Wow. Buzz has every right to his opinion, and to some extent, be pissed/weary of the revelation, but it might be a lot better served by keeping his opinion to himself, especially on that topic.
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I don't know. I'm starting to become skeptical of a lot of these claims my self.
Like that American Idol judge's recent claims.. If true, it's terrible, but the fact a lot of the so-called predators are never identified makes me wonder.
Celebs crave attention, positive and negative. And there is no stigma to being a victim of abuse so there is no harm for them to claim to have been victimized. It generates them more $ympathy and $upport, especially when their star power is fading.
I don't know ...

Add: If not Buzz then who, if anyone, should question the claims? He has a point about the timing and SRL's penchant for self-marketing. Maybe more journalists need to check this stuff out. Lord knows we can't rely on publishers to fact check.

mrbio · May 19, 2011

Buzz might be on to something.

Mizzougrad96 · May 19, 2011

mrbio said:

Buzz might be on to something.
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I defiitely think he is. I wouldn't want to be wrong though...

ringer · May 19, 2011

I totally get why Sugar Ray would keep it to himself.

It's one thing to tell someone about your own horrendous actions. It's quite another to publicly admit being a victim of something that you had no control over. Who can blame Sugar Ray for trying to own/control the one part of his life that he never had control over?

At the same time -- how arrogant for any author to think he/she is entitled to knowing every last detail of someone's life. And worse, to suggest -- based on nothing more than an unfulfilled sense of entitlement -- that someone's confession is a marketing ploy instead of the truth.

Okay, it is a little weird that Sugar Ray didn't name the perpetrator -- but that's also a clue that he's probably still alive (and could sue for libel). An enterprising journalist, rather than moan about being kept in the dark about this, would do some real investigative reporting to figure out who the coach was, crack the case, and break the story.

mrbio · May 20, 2011

ringer said:

I totally get why Sugar Ray would keep it to himself.

It's one thing to tell someone about your own horrendous actions. It's quite another to publicly admit being a victim of something that you had no control over. Who can blame Sugar Ray for trying to own/control the one part of his life that he never had control over?

At the same time -- how arrogant for any author to think he/she is entitled to knowing every last detail of someone's life. And worse, to suggest -- based on nothing more than an unfulfilled sense of entitlement -- that someone's confession is a marketing ploy instead of the truth.

Okay, it is a little weird that Sugar Ray didn't name the perpetrator -- but that's also a clue that he's probably still alive (and could sue for libel). An enterprising journalist, rather than moan about being kept in the dark about this, would do some real investigative reporting to figure out who the coach was, crack the case, and break the story.
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Ringer TKO Buzz

wicked · May 20, 2011

People react to trauma differently. Some block it out entirely, some try to ignore it, some confront it. Who knows what sort of relationship Ray had with Buzz vs. the author of the new autobiography, but that also likely played a role.

It is one thing to want to see the accusation vetted. It's another thing to be a flaming prick about it.

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In Book, Sugar Ray Leonard Says Coach Sexually Abused Him

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