Sugar Ray Leonard Quotes

Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.

You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win.

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.

Bruce Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to go beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want the public to see a knockout in the making.

Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.

Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing.

I've always believed that you can be whatever you want to be if you are willing to sacrifice and dedicate yourself.

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.

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 consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We've all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up.

Inactivity is the biggest sin in boxing.

When we got back to the U.S., I wanted to kiss the ground after seeing what people in other countries are denied or don't have.

I learned how to sumon, 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.

In Italy, I had an Afro, and a lot of the kids came up and felt my hair. It really was funny. I wish I had understood Italian.

Everything you want to know about a fighter is in his eyes. The look in his eyes tells the truth.

You don't play boxing. You really don't. You play golf, you play tennis, but you don't play boxing.

I always expect unexpected challenges.

I wouldnt change anything because the mistakes and the hurt are as important as all the great fights. They made me who I am today.

I saw Todd Bridges talk about being abused on Oprah. Something that he said, or an expression that he made that gave me that little boost I needed to be open about it and to talk about it as transparently as I did. When I told my wife, she couldn't believe it. She was petrified, because it's such a no-no, taboo, a hands-off subject. But I'd have to say hearing Todd Bridges on Oprah was my watershed moment.

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.

When I turned pro, Muhammad Ali was laying back, and I was able to fill up an area that was empty.

While each of us faces enormous challenges every day, it's not the sins we commit that will define us, its how we respond to them.

To be the best, you need to spend hours and hours and hours running, hitting the speed bag, lifting weights and focusing on training.

Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There's nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring.

Generally, the more weight you put on, the less effective you are.

I'm a competitor and a very proud man. If a guy beats me once, he'll have to do it again to make me believe him.

I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.

My ambition is not to be just a good fighter. I want to be great, something special.

Ali's belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it's become my own philosophy

If I hadn't had the talent, the networks wouldn't have televised my fights. No one has made me; I made myself. I paid my dues

I want to be great, something special.

I found boxing when I was 14 years old. I went down to the gym because my brother, who used to beat me up all the time, introduced me to boxing. I found boxing to be a sport that I felt safe in because I controlled what was in those four squares.

I wanted to be like Bruce Jenner.

Boxing was not something I truly enjoyed. Like a lot of things in life, when you put the gloves on, it's better to give than to receive.

Aaron Pryor wants to get into the ring with me. He wants to be able to retire, and he will. For health reasons.

My intention was to fight Durán ASAP because I knew Durán's habits. I knew he would indulge himself, he'd gain 40–50 lbs and then sweat it off to make 147.

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 was the only career where I wouldn't have to start out at the bottom. I had a good resume.

Although it was a great accomplishment to win a gold medal, as soon as they put it on you, that's it; your career is over.

I've never believed in tying myself up in a long-range contract, and I've been very outspoken on that subject.

When I'm not in training. I'll walk around the streets at 153, but it's not solid; it's my socializing weight.

I was painfully initiated into boxing, because the guys I fought were a lot bigger than me.

I think I've become one of the best finishers in boxing; if I hurt a guy, I normally take him out.

The only way for a fighter to get back in shape is to fight his way back.

Except for Ali, fighters had never been marketable.

Before I fight, I always pray that no one gets hurt.

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.

Someone once said there was a comparison between Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson. Believe me, there's no comparison. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest.

Holyfield is nothing but class, and I think he's a breath of fresh air for the sport.

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.