Leonard Says in Book He Was Abused by Coach at LinesMaker

Leonard Says in Book He Was Abused by Coach

NEW YORK —Sugar Ray Leonard says in his upcom­ing auto­bi­og­ra­phy that he was sex­u­ally abused by a coach as a young boxer in the early 1970s.

In “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring,” the Hall of Famer writes than an unnamed “promi­nent Olympic box­ing coach,” who has since died, assaulted him in a car in a deserted park­ing lot across the street from a rec cen­ter after prais­ing his bright future.

Leonard, who turned 55 on Tues­day, won a gold medal at the 1976 Games then went on to cap­ture five world titles in five weight classes.

He writes: “I do know that I was in a lot of pain as I chased my dream of win­ning the gold.”

The book, writ­ten with Michael Arkush, is due out next month. The account of abuse was first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday.

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