Sugar Ray Leonard

CTL-E-6047 · Person · other · 1956–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07270 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6047.

Ray Charles Leonard, born 17 May 1956 in Wilmington, North Carolina, and raised in Palmer Park, Maryland, is an American former professional boxer known worldwide as Sugar Ray Leonard. He won a light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and turned professional in 1977, becoming the defining non-heavyweight star of the following decade. Leonard won world titles in five weight classes, from welterweight to light heavyweight, and was the undisputed welterweight champion. As the central figure of the Four Kings era, he defeated Wilfred Benítez, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns and, in a celebrated 1987 comeback after nearly three years away, Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight title. Eye injuries and retirements repeatedly interrupted his career, and he fought for the last time in 1997, finishing 36-3-1 with 25 knockouts. Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997, he remains a broadcaster, speaker and public figure, giving an extended interview in October 2026.

The record

• Also known as: Ray Charles Leonard, Sugar

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 5 — 747 Program, Wave 11; 40-record packet). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Sugar Ray Leonard entity in the live graph at 3,763 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-6047 assigned at assembly. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 1217 (Boxers list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — African American boxer; Olympic gold medalist and five-weight world champion, the central figure of the Four Kings era. Vital status: LIVING — extended FightNews interview published 14 Oct 2026; turned 70 on 17 May 2026 (BoxingNews24). Note: some secondary sources give Rocky Mount, North Carolina as his birthplace; this record follows Wikipedia's Wilmington, North Carolina. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): Professional record 36-3-1, 25 KOs (Wikipedia / IBHOF class listing); world titles in five weight classes, the first boxer to achieve that (IBHOF, Class of 1997). MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Wikimedia Commons photograph of Sugar Ray Leonard in 1998; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-temp-1217-sugar-ray-leonard.svg); video HELD (Shorts Link Map checked by name and variants — no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights basis). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging.)

Relationships

• Floyd Mayweather Sr. — related to
  Leonard stopped Floyd Mayweather Sr. (CTL-E-6004) in the tenth round at Providence on 9 September 1978, early in Leonard's professional career; the bout is documented in both fighters' records (the Wave 4 packet blocked this edge only because no Leonard entity then existed).
• Sugar Ray Robinson — related to
  Leonard took the name 'Sugar Ray' in honor of Sugar Ray Robinson (CTL-E-6049, staged in this same packet) and earned Robinson's approval before building his championship career; the naming lineage is a documented part of both records.

Sources

• International Boxing Hall of Fame, 'Class of 1997' induction ceremony report — Leonard, elected in his first year of eligibility, was enshrined as a living inductee in 1997 and was the first boxer in history to win world titles in five weight classes — http://www.ibhof.com/pages/inductionweekend/1997/97ceremony.html (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, 'Sugar Ray Leonard' — Ray Charles Leonard, born 17 May 1956, Wilmington, North Carolina; 1976 Olympic light welterweight gold medalist; professional record 36 wins (25 KOs), 3 losses, 1 draw across five weight classes — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Ray_Leonard (build store)
• FightNews, 'Exclusive Interview Sugar Ray Leonard' (14 Oct 2026) — extended one-on-one interview with Leonard launching his Sugar Ray Leonard Collection glove line, discussing Hearns, Durán, Hagler and his 1976 Olympic gold — https://fightnews.com/exclisive-interview-sugar-ray-leonard/146153 (build store)
• BoxingNews24, 'Sugar Ray Leonard At 70 Still Stands Above Boxing's Four Kings' (17 May 2026) — Leonard turned 70 on 17 May 2026; Four Kings victories over Durán, Hearns, Hagler and Benítez; took the Sugar Ray name with Robinson's approval — https://www.boxingnews24.com/2026/05/sugar-ray-leonard-at-70-still-stands-apart-from-boxings-four-kings/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6047 · Combined Graph record U-07270 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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