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Sugar Ray Leonard’s depiction of himself in his upcoming autobiography is hardly flattering. He describes himself as a philandering husband, an absentee father and a
substance abuser. Perhaps most shockingly, he revealed he was sexually abused by a prominent, but unnamed, boxing coach while preparing for the 1976 Olympics in
Montreal.
He was hardly the All-
American boy that his carefully crafted image portrayed him to be.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life that I’m not proud of,” Leonard said soberly during a telephone interview.
In the book, he describes the abuse by writing he was in a car across from a recreation center with an Olympic coach. They were ostensibly there to discuss the significance of a
gold medal.
“Before I knew it, he had unzipped my pants and put his hand, then mouth, on an area that has haunted me for life,” Leonard wrote. “I didn’t scream. I didn’t look at him. I just opened the door and ran.”
Leonard has been perceived as a heroic figure in boxing since winning the gold medal in 1976 and going on to a career in which he’d defeat legendary fighters such as
Marvelous Marvin Hagler,
Roberto Duran,
Thomas Hearns and
Wilfred Benitez, among many others.
But there is nothing heroic about making an allegation such as he did and then failing to name names. It creates needless speculation about who did it and innocent people, who presumably only helped Leonard and assisted him on his way to superstardom, have become suspect.
Leonard, though, insists he’s handled it appropriately and doesn’t believe he’s necessarily cast aspersion upon innocent men.
“The people who are innocent, they know they’re innocent and they won’t even think of it, precisely because they’re innocent,” Leonard told
Yahoo! Sports. “The people who are the perpetrators, if I would say their names, reveal their names, that would cause a lot of pain and suffering for their families and their kids. I didn’t think I had to do that. I could state what happened to me without going further and naming names and creating more pain for anyone else.”
Leonard said he told his first wife, Juanita, about the abuse, but that she didn’t respond in a way that would encourage further discussion. He said he later told his current wife, Bernadette, at a time when he’d had too much to drink.
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-iole_sugar_ray_leonard_book_060811
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