Sugar Ray Leonard said Oscar De La Hoya made a wise choice deciding to go to a rehab clinic reportedly to address issues of alcohol and substance abuse.
“I’m a friend of Oscar’s, and the fact he has admitted he has a problem, that is the most important step he could make,” Leonard said this week. “You have to surrender yourself and admit you need help.”
Leonard is speaking from experience. In his new book, “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring,” the boxing legend discusses his own battles with cocaine use and alcohol abuse. He also reveals that he was sexually abused as a young fighter by an unnamed “prominent Olympic boxing coach.”
Leonard said he actually began writing his memoirs years ago but wasn’t ready to reveal the whole truth about his life.
“I started writing back in the ’80s, but I wasn’t ready,” he said. “It took time to come to grips and surrender myself and be open.”
Leonard, 55, is making the rounds promoting his book, which went on sale this week. He also writes about his boxing career, where he won world titles in five different weight divisions and was named the Boxer of the Decade for the 1980s. Yet, Leonard admitted he fought longer than he should have and for the wrong reasons. Two fights he especially regrets were his two final bouts, which came nearly six years apart — his 1991 bout against Terry Norris at Madison Square Garden and a 1996 fight against Hector Camacho in Atlantic City. Leonard lost both fights, finishing with a career record of 36-3-1, 25 KOs.
“I should have never fought Norris, and I should have never fought Camacho,” Leonard said. “Those were fights I was using to cushion my inner issues.”
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Despite winning a world title in two divisions, Zab Judah’s career to seems to fallen short of its potential. But that could change on July 23 when he challenges Amir Khan of England in the junior welterweight unification bout at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
A former undisputed welterweight champion, Judah’s career stalled after losing a welterweight title fight to Joshua Clottey in 2008. But he has won five straight bouts since, including a seventh-round TKO over Kaizer Mabuza for the IBF junior welterweight championship last March.
Now Judah (40-6, 28 KOs) has a chance to fight Khan (25-1, 17 KOs), who is considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.
“I’ve been praying on this fight,” Judah said. “My goal is to be undisputed champion at two weights. I did it at 147 and I’m going to do it at 140 starting with Amir Khan. I’m very experienced, so whichever way he brings the fight, I can deal with it and it from him.”
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You know something is amiss when Floyd Mayweather is complimenting an opponent. In announcing his Sept. 17 match against WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, Mayweather called his future foe an “extremely talented fighter who showed amazing skills and heart in his last performance against Andre Berto.” Mayweather also called Ortiz a “young, strong, rising star.”
All of the above might be true, but when is the last time you heard Mayweather praise someone he was about to fight? Here’s the answer: Never.
So why the kind words for Ortiz? It’s because the only way to sell the pay-per-view bout is to make the public believe Ortiz will give Mayweather a competitive battle. That’s the task this promotion faces over the next three months. It won’t be an easy sell, because most fight fans want Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao.
Though Mayweather will have been out of the ring for 16 months, Ortiz will be a huge underdog and doesn’t figure to have the speed for experience to give Mayweather a credible challenge.