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When Ray Leonard Confronted Mentally Unstable Ecklund

Boxing After Dark

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In today’s episode, we take a trip back to 1978, where a young Sugar Ray Leonard steps into the ring for his first ever 10-round bout. His opponent? A then-underrated but tough and crafty fighter named Dicky Eklund.

With major matchups on the horizon against legends like Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns, Leonard must prove he has what it takes to handle a slick, durable opponent and continue his rise to greatness.

20 Comments

@succinctlylong 10 months ago

I like the fact that audience is a bunch of regulars, instead of highlighted celebrities in the front rows.

@burghgreek 1 year ago

If you are able to last all those rounds with one of the best fighters ever and go toe to toe, you are one hell of a fighter.

@bobmckernan6538 1 year ago

Dicky Eklund won the biggest fight of his life!! Addiction!! What a great time in boxing 👊

@randallkeith5229 8 months ago

I met Dickie E while locked up back in 1998. He came to talk to us, the younger adults, and I recall a LOT of what that man said. It's helped me remain out of jail and stay on the right path since I heard his story about alcoholism/drug addiction, his life in Lowell and the fight of his life against Sugar Ray Leonard. Dickie admitted to being a mess leading up to and even during the fight, but he didn't make excuses. He said that Ray Leonard WAS the better fighter that night. There's a bunch not mentioned here, but yes, Dickie, Mickie Ward and the rest of the family were good people who happened to have dragged themselves into SHITTY lifestyles then dragged themselves back out. Lowell is a bad place to try to get clean and sober in ESPECIALLY being from there, but that family was legendary before the movie, the fight with Leonard. Not for good reasons either. His mother did baby him even into adulthood. Would bail him out, buy his drugs, etc.... Wild story, and he was VERY well respected in prison. Taught MANY the basics of boxing while locked up. But yeah, the girls in that family were absolutely bonkers as well....

@taxisteve929 9 months ago

The toughness of these guys is unbelievable. That was probably the first time Eklund fought someone who was even quicker than he is if that’s possible. Sugar Ray was a phenomenal fighter and that makes Eklund one of the greats.

@mattsmith1440 1 year ago

Sugar Ray's statement about believing in reality was music to my ears. Funny how it sounds revolutionary at this moment in history.

@brenone215 1 year ago

Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran great era for boxing especially in that weight class

@USLethal 9 months ago

I had no idea Dicky was this tough, phenomenal fight. Instant all time favorite

@JotimThingadane 1 year ago

Sugar Ray Leonard at his prime was a very technical tactical beast

@RAWKPHENOM 1 year ago

Leonard is one of the kindest ppl I’ve ever met working in the Hollywood area. I felt like he treated me, a nobody just delivering pizza, like an equal. A class act no doubt💯

@bilbobagginssword3926 1 year ago (edited)

I think because of Rays soft spoken manner was he was underrated in the toughness category. He could take a punch and had the heart of a lion.

@jimd5955 1 year ago

I remember the fight as a young man and you got to give it to him because he went the distance and there's a lot of great fighters who couldn't. Sugar ray was a generational fighter

@Paul-m1u4f 9 months ago

Eklund is an amazing story. And what a gentleman SRL is. Eklund now owns a very successful gym and several businesses. He’s worth about 10 million today. Amazing and inspiring.