A while back Sugar Ray Leonard (hall of fame boxer) revealed in his new autobiography The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring that in his early teens he had beed sexually abused by one of his coaches and then later by a fan.
I've always loved boxing and respected Sugar Ray Leonard's skills in the ring. Now I respect him as a man because of the fact that he came out about his abuse. By definition, being a fighter you put yourself through physical pain but for the most part that heals over time, but it's the mental anguish that sometimes takes longer to heal, if at all.
The damage you sustain from sexual abuse creeps into every relationship and pretty much every facet of your life. It's not a coincidence that many people who have been abused become addicts of one kind or another, and Sugar Ray was no exception with his addiction to alcohol.
He eventually got help and took responsibility for his addictive behavior. I have great respect those that overcome sexual abuse, and addiction. For a person like Sugar Ray Leonard to go through something like that and speak out about it, might encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to do the same and get help.
