Sugar Ray Leonard: Sports Champions (1983)

*****

Nothing short of fascinating, this video reveals quite a peculiar look at boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard as he contemplates retirement over a detached retina circa 1982. The documentary follows Leonard as he boards the Queen Elizabeth II for a boat ride across the Atlantic. On a luxury liner evidently booked as a Sugar Ray themed cruise to London, the former Olympic champion not only signs autographs and grants a public interview, but he also dances and sings badly with the house band and get this, he spars an exhibition with one of the ship’s deck hands.

And that’s right when the video gets serious, as Sugar Ray falls into some sort of instinctive boxing “trance” that has him quickly depart from clowning around with his fully amateur sparring partner to stinging the poor guy left and right with sharp professional jabs. So this random bloke gets riled up enough by Sugar Ray to really fight back and manages to whip a punch right into Leonard’s damaged eye. Oops, he shouldn’t have done that as Sugar Ray then proceeds to knock the deck hand the hell out, in this tiny room on a ship in front of about 30 old people. It’s literally jaw-dropping footage, especially clips of Sugar Ray continuously popping dude in super close, slow motion.

Upon arrival in London, Sugar Ray hangs out with the don Bob Hope and then proceeds to ask a bunch of Brits if they think he should actually retire…they almost all say yes. After meeting with a former opponent Dave Boy Green, and explaining to him exactly how he almost killed him, Sugar Ray unleashes yet another wow moment when he not only denies that his eye was injured while boxing but blames it on his elementary aged son. Without even being able to cite an instance, he reasons that surely Ray Jr. just might have scratched his eye playing basketball in the front yard. As Sugar Ray puts it, we “play a lot of basketball.” Oh my!

The video ends with Leonard hosting a tear-jerking ceremony in his hometown of Baltimore to announce his retirement in November ’82. Of course, he would go on to fight Marvelous Marvin Hagler within a year from then. It’s just supremely hilarious and surreal that for 50 minutes Sugar Ray acts out every indication that he cares enough about his health and his family to stop boxing, yet it’s so easy to see through his façade at every turn, knowing full well that he would undoubtedly fight again. HBO’s Real Sports eat your heart out on this one, a true vhs gem.