Not longer after his fight with Roger Stafford in May was cancelled, Sugar Ray revealed that he had first hurt his eye in training for Thomas Hearns in September of 1981. No symptoms prevented him from fighting however, and he knocked out Bruce Finch in February of 1982 rather easily.
In training for Stafford however, he started to have trouble with his vision and knew something was wrong. Doctors revealed he had suffered a detached retina and immediately performed surgery to repair the problem. It was strictly up to Ray if he wanted to box or not.
Sugar Ray went on a soul searching cruise to England in September to mull his choices. At only 26 years of age and at the top of his profession, it was a difficult decision to make. Many were telling him to retire and not to risk blindness, but the fighter in him wanted to keep going on.
He scheduled a November 9th date at the Baltimore Civic Center to announce his plans for the future. With Marvin Hagler ringside and hoping for a huge payday with Leonard, all ears listened as a tuxedo clad Ray talked about 5 minutes before announcing he was finished with boxing. The boxing world had huge shoes to fill without it’s biggest star and I had lost my favorite fighter to retirement.
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