The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring

"The Big Fight: My Life in and out of the Ring" is an autobiography written by Sugar Ray Leonard with Michael Arkush. The hardcover book is 320 pages in length while the Kindle e-edition is a 449 Kb download.

This book, details in a chronological fashion, many events throughout Sugar Ray Leonard's life...beginning with his childhood, the circumstances that lead him into boxing, his rise to fame and glory within the boxing world and maybe most importantly, how that life of success and achievement almost destroyed this remarkable athlete.

Initially I found a lot of childhood info, particularly in early chapters, that while may have important and interesting to some, was not what I'd bought this book for. I had expected that Leonard had come from a poor black neighborhood and grew up with few advantages in life...what I'd wanted was the details of his boxing career and the things that influenced this period in his life. However, as I got deeper into his story, I began to realize that these childhood anecdotes did in fact have a major influence in his boxing development and then later on when things began to drift out of control.

Also, the revelations in this book made me realize just how naive a person (me) can be about a perceived hero...Sugar Ray Leonard. During his boxing and commentary career he was one of the few sports figures that I always truly admired...he was, as he says in his own words personable and charismatic and this was how I thought of him, until I read this book. To witness your hero display and succumb to the human frailties that were exposed in this book...his unabashed philandering, the alcohol abuse and cocaine addiction, was to say the least, eye opening and disturbing. Leonard, to his credit, seemed to mature in his post boxing years, admitting to his many mistakes and appearing truly remorseful for those he hurt the most, his family.

That being said it was still thrilling to read his accounts of the classic battles with Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, and Marvin Hagler. So much going on in his mind as well as the ring. You could almost feel the tension that must have prevailed on those special nights.

I realized that this book was partially ghost written, (it would have to have been), but yet it came across as just that...ghost written. I had the image of Leonard verbalizing the ideas and someone else converting them into readable syntax. Really, I expected this...just taken aback by how obvious it was. Really a small complaint in an otherwise intriguing account of one man's life.

Conclusion:
An interesting book detailing the life and career of one of boxing greatest figures.
4 1/2 to 5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

With the new Sugar Ray movie coming out I wanted to get his autobiography so I knew the story. The book is super easy to read and is written to keep things interesting. I'm learning a ton of details that were never reported before about SRL as he was always perfect. This book shows Sugar Ray's flaws and yes, he is human! Roberto Duran called no Mas in their second bout, the book highlights this chapter in SRL's life very well. You won't be disappointed with this read.

The most poignant moment in a celebrities life often happens when they look back on all they have done only to realize that the most important moments happened far from the public view. Sugar Ray Leonard felt the need to rewrite his life story because his life had been a lie. He was beloved by the public. He was thrown riches and adored by women. He was given advantage and earned opportunities. In this book he reveals that underneath it all he was a terrible father, a cheating husband, a drug addict and an alcoholic.

All through this book Ray opens up his life to reveal his mistakes. I wanted to feel sorry for him but I just can't. There comes a point in everyone's life where you have to take full responsibility for who you are and even in this book, Ray never fully does that. Instead he bandies about a set of excuses for almost everything he did. He harassed people both personally and professionally but softened the language to make it sound like he didn't really mean it. It doesn't matter what you meant or how you felt afterwards. It matters what you do or in this case, what you did.

The book itself was professionally edited which made it a clean read. It is easy to flip through with apt descriptions. If you are a boxing fan, this is a worthy page turner for your collection. The most meaningful sentence in the entire book is not about Ray but about society when he says that he developed a talent for something that society values. I will agree that he (Or his writers) hit the real problem. Ray was held up on a pedestal for his ability to hurt other people. Yet, outside the ring he was what we consider to be a bad person in almost every way. It is a painful truth that we don't reward people for being good parents, lovers, children or citizens. No, we reward people for aggressively dominating other people. We reward violence and cast a blind eye to immorality.

Ray probably did the best he could for the time, place and conditions in which he found himself. It is a very human story but it is one that I hope we don't have to see repeated.

Sugar Ray Leonard, by far, outside of Ali, is one of the all-time greatest fighters to ever grace the boxing ring. And what I loved most about Ray's book is his complete honesty in telling his life story, which I could tell was very, very difficult for him to do. What's funny to me is that I just finished reading Todd Bridges' life story, and it was because of his interview with Oprah, that Ray decided to come clean with his past about drugs and alcohol.

It was so great to relive the moments of his greatest fights ever-- Duran, Hearns and Hagler. I watched all three of them and it was wonderful to relive those moments. Sugar Ray was so light on his feet and quick, a real smooth go-getter and didn't take any stuff in the ring. When that bell rang, all that was on his mind was pulverizing his opponent, which he did so eloquently.

I was shocked to learn how long he boxed because I must have stopped watching his fights after Hagler, and although he realized that his body had seen better days, he still holds the heart of a true fighter. He is and always will be "The Champ" in my book, and kudos to him for telling his story and freeing himself of the demons he had to live with.

This is an outstanding read and will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end! I have even more respect for Sugar Ray, the fighter, and Ray Leonard, the man!

SIDENOTE: My only problem with this Kindle version is that Sugar didn't put any pictures in the book. Perhaps in paper he did, but none appeared here. But that will not stop you from enjoying the book!

I got this book because it was interesting to me to see what happened behind the scenes at boxing matches. I’m not really a boxing fan and I thought I could learn something from this story.

In many ways it’s like a typical sports or rockstar story with ups downs while dealing with success.

It was a quick and easy reading, and someone enjoyable.

Very good book, fast read, informative, personnel, surprising, hopeful. Sugar was a champion inside the ropes now has a chance to become one outside of them.

I looked up to Sugar Ray in my youth and appreciate Ray Leonard even more now. A true American Hero.

Great story of the life of sugar Ray Leonard. Very candid and inspirational of one of the all time boxing champions

Greatest boxers of all time to ever do it. I just love it to break the cycle of the boxers in the 80's

Ray is honest to a fault here, but most of the book is entertaining. I liked his thoughts years later on things that he did in his past.