The champ swings

Boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard KOs the squeaky-clean image that made him famous in his revealing new autobiography. Beginning with his tough childhood in a rough city suburb, it moves through his triumphant gold medal Olympic performance and into an unintended pro career peppered with the pitfalls of fame, which constantly threatened his personal and professional life. In The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring, some passages could be longer and segues occasionally misfire; however, even those scenes that fail to deliver the expected punch at least provide interesting anecdotes from a life filled with high contrasts. Boxing fans will enjoy the many colorful reminiscences of his former bouts against such luminaries as Roberto Durán, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler. Leonard details the strategies he used to defeat his opponents in the ring, but by the end of the book you realize his biggest opponent was always himself.