THE SUPERFIGHT NARRATIVE
DARKNESS was Ray Leonard’s light during his years away from boxing. Denied the stage he had illuminated as his sport’s most celestial exponent in the immediate aftermath of Muhammad Ali’s sad decline and exit, he descended into an abyss.
“I discovered alcohol and cocaine mix very well together, very easily, and I nearly lost it, I really did,” he acknowledged. “I went all the way to the edge and I nearly went over.”
With no ring in which to perform, no arena, no opponent, nothing in his life providing him with the sharp clarity of focus he needed in order to feel fully alive – to be Sugar Ray – he plummeted until what he saw staring back at him did not bear contemplating.
The ghosts of two sexual abusers, one of them an Olympic boxing coach in whose hands he believed lay his destiny of a gold medal in Montreal in 1976, came back to haunt him and he was unable to exorcise them from his mind. There were nights he came home, fuelled by his substance abuse, and allegedly manhandled his wife, Juanita. On one occasion she described how he pulled a gun and threatened to shoot himself. On another how he poured a can of paraffin over the floor and vowed to burn down the house if she decided to leave. His behaviour was erratic, out of control.
“I DISCOVERED ALCOHOL AND COCAINE MIX VERY WELL TOGETHER, VERY EASILY, I NEARLY LOST IT… I WENT ALL THE WAY TO THE EDGE”
He woke up
