Top 50 Players In Baltimore Sports History: Countdown 5-1

4. Sugar Ray Leonard, Boxer

sugarrayleonard.com

To answer your question, yes we include boxers. However, Sugar Ray is not only the first boxer on this list, but he is also the last. Leonard was born in Wilmington, North Carolina before his family moved to Washington D.C. when he was three, and then they permanently settled in Palmer Park, Maryland when he was ten-years-old. Named after his mother’s favorite singer Ray Charles, Leonard attended Parkdale High School in Riverdale, Maryland.

Leonard made his professional debut on February 5, 1977 before a crowd of 10,270 at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. He was paid $40,044 for the fight. His opponent was Luis “The Bull” Vega, whom he defeated by a six-round unanimous decision. In his fourteenth professional fight, Leonard fought his first world-ranked opponent, Floyd Mayweather, who was ranked seventeenth. Leonard won by a tenth-round knockout.

After losing his first two career matches, Leonard was victorious in 36 of his next 38 fights, finishing his career with a record of 36-3-1. He was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions, and was included in a number of famous matches including “The Brawl In Montreal”, “The Revenge In New Orleans” and “The Showdown”. Leonard was named “Boxer of the Decade” for the 1980s.