Sugar Ray Eyes Thrill of Victory : He Says That’s the Reason He’s Fighting Hagler

Ray Leonard has spent the past nine months deciding how to fight Marvin Hagler--and explaining why.

The “how” is the most intriguing question of Leonard’s life’ the “why” is the most irritating. Neither has a simple answer.

If both questions are unanswered after Leonard’s scheduled 12-round bout against Hagler April 6 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, then Leonard will have failed in his quest to defeat the middleweight champ.

Then he, too, may be asking why instead of how.

If he is successful, Leonard will score one of the biggest and most gratifying victories in boxing history. The why would be answered once and for all.

For now, the why of Leonard’s challenge is a mystery to all but the former welterweight and junior middleweight champion. Why would a man who has earned millions of dollars, who retired twice after having surgery to repair retina damage, who last fought three years ago and once in five years, want to move up in weight to fight one of boxing’s great champions?

“Marvin Hagler is the mountain I want to climb,” Leonard said. “I’m 30, I’m healthy. If I had never fought Hagler, it is something that would always be on my mind even when I’m 60. And I believe it’s the same for Marvin. It’s ego, money and Sugar Ray Leonard.

“Marvin is fighting me for the recognition. I’m fighting him for the thrill of victory.” Money, ego and the will to be a three-time champion are the most obvious reasons for Leonard’s one-fight comeback. Whenever a fighter announces a comeback, money is the first reason people think of. Especially when the warrior is guaranteed $11 million, as is Leonard.

Leonard has not wasted his ring earnings, which climbed above $44 million. According to his lawyer, Mike Trainer, Leonard’s money earns more in interest than he spends in a year. He lives in a $1-million, English Tudor home set on two acres of land in Potomac, Md., with his wife Juanita and sons Ray Jr., 13, and Jarrel, 2. He spends grudgingly.

The middleweight title is not much movitation for Leonard either. When he announced May 1 that he wanted to challenge Hagler, Leonard proposed a non-title bout. He never speaks of winning the middleweight title, only of beating Hagler.

That leaves ego. Many who know Leonard believe this is his true motivation, and one that will help him win the fight.

“Ray’s got too much ego going,” said Emmanuel Steward, whose Kronk Boxing Club stable includes Thomas Hearns, who lost to both Leonard and Hagler. “He hasn’t been there in a while. He’s got enough ego and enough talent to go out and fight 12 rounds and win.”

Steward remembers a party for one of his fighters, Milton McCrory, after a 1985 victory over Carlos Trujillo in Monte Carlo. Leonard was at the party, and seemed out of place, according to Steward.

“Milton was the big man,” Steward said. “Ray was just sitting there and it was eating him up. Another time he was at a party for Tommy, who Ray beat. Ray was just standing in the corner, he wasn’t a star.”

“You have to know the individual,” said trainer Lou Duva, whose stable includes five 1984 Olympic medal winners. “I’m betting on his ego.”

Added Angelo Dundee, who will help train Leonard for the April 6 fight: “He’s high because he got this fight. If he didn’t get it, he would be in pain.”

Leonard’s May 1 announcement surprised many people, but did not shock those closest to him. He had wanted a Hagler fight for years. Great welterweights have challenged great middleweights throughout boxing history, and a battle between Leonard and Hagler was considered natural when they were the only undisputed champions from September of 1981 until Leonard’s first retirement the following November.

Leonard’s eye surgery pushed back the dream matchup once, and his lackluster showing in a 1982 fight against Kevin Howard prompted him to retire again. Leonard was floored in the fourth round before stoppping Howard in nine, and retired again immediately after the bout.

“It was an emotional thing,” Leonard said. “I didn’t want to hear it any more; I didn’t want to hear it from you guys (media), I didn’t want to hear it from the fans. I called it quits.

“The next two years I said ‘I did the wrong thing.’ I watched that film and I said ‘Hey man, I’m better than this.’

“I know I can fight. And most importantly, I know I can win.”

After Hagler’s unimpressive 15-round decision over Roberto Duran Nov. 10, 1983, Leonard told friends at ringside he was sure he could beat Hagler. That feeling grew with each Hagler fight, most of which Leonard attended in his role as HBO’s boxing analyst. After Hagler’s 11th-round knockout over junior middleweight John Mugabi last March, Leonard felt it was now or never.

“This fight, I’ve always felt was inevitable,” he said. “It’s like being an amateur boxer and win every amateur tournament there is and never get to the Olympics.

“I was never retired. I was unemployed.”

Leonard’s challenge of Hagler received a negative public reaction. Leonard’s injured left eye and inactivity were the main reasons against such a bout. Leonard repeatedly emphasized he had medical clearance, but it took a passing grade from a battery of seven doctors to finally calm the furor when the bout was announced Nov. 3.

Still, skeptics remained.

“I just hope his comeback doesn’t hurt boxing,” Hagler said.

Another reason people said Leonard should not fight was the wishes of his wife. Juanita Leonard never wanted her husband to box, even when he was champion.

However, it is hard to deter a man from a career that makes him rich and famous. Before Leonard decided to fight Hagler, he talked with his wife and she reluctantly accepted his decision.

“I accept it, I have to get used to it,” Juanita Leonard said. “If I told Ray I was wholeheartedly against it, he would respect my wishes. But people have to accept that Ray’s the kind of guy who can make his own decisions. He’s made some good decisions before.

“I don’t want to say I’m all for it, because I’m not. I don’t like boxing to begin with, I think it’s brutal.”

Hagler needed time to consider Leonard’s decision, and did not accept the challenge until August. Eventually, public opinion began turning and the fight has gained acceptance. The odds, which opened at 4-1 in Halger’s favor, dropped to 2 1/2-1 and ticket sales are brisk.

“First it was, ‘Oh no, this kid don’t have a chance,’ ” Leonard said. “Now it’s ‘We see something different, we see a different Ray. This kid might have a chance.’

“There was initial paranoia. ‘He hasn’t fought in a long time, how can he win?’ Now they’ve had time to re-evaluate the situation. Hey, I didn’t just start fighting. I’ve been fighting a long time.”

Leonard has put his surgically-repaired eyes (a minor procedure was performed on his right eye) to work, watching countless hours of tapes of Hagler’s last five fights. Before he left for his Hilton Head, S.C., training camp Jan. 20, Leonard trained at the gym named for him at Palmer Park, Md.

Before and after each session, he watched tapes of Halger-Duran in an office one flight above the gym. Leonard remembers the two fights he split with Duran in 1980. The first, a 15-round decision, was Leonard’s only loss in 34 fights. He avenged it with an eighth-round TKO in the “No mas” bout.

Whenever Leonard noticed a move by Duran that gave Hagler trouble, his eyes lit up. “I can do that better,” he says.

Leonard also likes what he hears from Hagler. He considered it a victory that Hagler quit the 12-city publicity tour scheduled by promoter Bob Arum halfway through. Hagler stopped talking to Leonard when the Nov. 3 press conference in New York began. Leonard continued to make small talk but Hagler refused to answer. Finally, Hagler failed to show for the Dec. 16 Chicago press conference and called off the tour.

By then, Arum claimed to have $28 million in the till and let Hagler walk, despite his $12 million guaranteed purse.

“Marvin’s rather intense,” Leonard said. “His mentality won’t allow him to be friends with his opponent. That’s his persona, he’s mean. But I don’t have to hate my opponent to go into the ring.

“At the New York press conference, we talked about everything. We shook hands, then when the curtain went up, it was war. In private, I talk to him. He don’t talk to me.

“I like his way of thinking. He’s not thinking about winning, he’s thinking about what happens if he loses. He even said ‘I can fight again if I lose,’ that’s all I wanted to hear.”

Leonard insists he will never fight again, win or lose, after meeting Hagler. Once this fight ends, he says he will happily continue to work for HBO and spend time with his family. Leonard is enjoying watching the athletic career Ray Jr.

“He was the MVP of his football team as a defensive end,” Leonard said. “Now he’s playing basketball, he’s like Michael Jordan.”

Leonard said he can never muster the same drive again for any other opponent.

“A man is only allowed so much drive for something like this,” he said. “There’s a limit on how many things you can do. I’m putting all my energy, everything into this fight.”

“I’ve never seen Ray like this for a fight,” Juanita Leonard said. “He takes this fight home.”

Leonard has had his share of super fights. His two Duran bouts and the Hearns fight were among the biggest and most famous in the history of boxing.

“Each fight had its feeling of being the ultimate,” Leonard said. “To beat Duran or Hearns would be the ultimate.”

So how is Hagler different?

“This,” Leonard said, “is the conclusion of the movie.”