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Sugar Ray Leonard Speaks About Aging

Sugar Ray Leonard gave a recent interview that might come under some scrutiny.  (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
Sugar Ray Leonard gave a recent interview that might come under some scrutiny. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
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I have always liked Sugar Ray Leonard whenever he has made media appearances. I loved when he was featured as a boxing advisor for both The Fighter and Real Steel. I appreciated that he gave his all on the dancing show Dancing with the Stars. Heck, I truly enjoyed his appearance on the Colbert Report. All of that is just to show my high opinion of Sugar Ray Leonard. That being said, he sounds quite conceited in this interview with Laura Hambleton of the Washington Post. In the beginning of the interview Laura asks Sugar Ray about when he noticed that he was losing his physical gifts.

"I talk about that all the time, to young, up-and-coming athletes. I felt that way when I turned 40, because I was not as focused. I didn't have the same commitment that I had when I was in my 20s or maybe 30s. I was preoccupied with other things instead of what I call tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is total focus. It's like looking through the tunnel, you see straight ahead, and you're not distracted or deterred. I was at my best when I had tunnel vision."

It later comes out that "losing tunnel vision" is equivalent to deterioration from abusing drugs and alcohol. I know that Sugar Ray is doing a bunch of motivational speaking but come on. You make it sound like it was a slight mental issue whereas it was a serious addiction that stole your physical gifts. He should really be focusing on the fact that drugs and alcohol are serious addictions, instead of trying to play it off as a mental issue. When he's further prodded about why he lost this tunnel vision Sugar Ray proceeds to blame his kids and family.

"I was at a point in my life, at the time, that I allowed myself distractions, whether that was because of my marriage, about being with my kids, a bad deal, all those things are factors."

I'm guess this is referring to the abusive relationship that Sugar Ray had with his wife after he retired. Still, it really doesn't sound good, and I can see if someone would think that Sugar Ray was blaming his family for the deterioration of his boxing skills. Hopefully, this is just me being paranoid but I really don't like this interview. What do you guys think of this interview?

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