Sugar Ray Seales: The “Other Sugar Ray”

By Ian “The Boxing Historian” Murphy

Some fighters do everything by the book. They build up experience at the amateur level, and if they show something truly special, they get put on the Olympic career track, with promises of instant stardom, money, and big time fights if they take home the gold. There have been boxers who followed that model to a “T”, men like Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, the Spinks Brothers, and Andre Ward in the Middleweight and Heavyweight divisions. Great champions like Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar De La Hoya followed suit in the lighter divisions. All these men were legit “greats in the making”, dominating the amateur ranks, taking the gold at the Olympics and winning championships afterwards. Yet, even if you have the talent, the amateur background, and the Gold medal, it is no guarantee of success, fame, and fortune. Another man who had a similar career arc as those aforementioned greats and also seemed groomed for greatness was 1970s middleweight contender “Sugar” Ray Seales.

Seales was born in the U.S Virgin Islands in 1952, and as a teenager moved to Tacoma, WA. He began boxing at age 12 under the instruction of his father, who boxed in the army. He also came from a talented family of fighters. His brother Wilbur Seales and half-brother Dale Grant also fought professionally. Ray proved a natural, and was a winner from the start. He won multiple Golden Gloves and showed so much promise, he earned a spot on the 1972 U.S Olympic Boxing team, winning a gold medal in the 139 lb division. In all, Seales went 338-12 with 200 knockouts as an amateur. After his Olympic triumph, Sugar Ray Seales was poised for the big time, or was he?

This rangy, 6’1 southpaw boxer/puncher had it all: speed, power, skills, drive, and toughness. He was even a “golden boy”, winning a gold medal in the Olympics. Sound a little bit like a certain fighter we all know and love? A complete fighter who took the Olympic career track to fame and fortune? Yes, his career at its outset paralleled that of another and more celebrated “Ray”. We are talking about none other than the one time “Face of Boxing”, Sugar Ray Leonard. Despite their early similarities, their career arcs were dramatically different.

Ray Seales was not fast-tracked in the same way as his slightly younger counterpart. In his pro debut, Seales didn’t get $40,000 for four rounds of work or $100,000 eight rounders like Leonard did. He mainly fought locally around Washington against obscure talent with little national attention. He fought for an average purse of $4,500. Seales himself felt that his visibility at the 1972 Olympics was hindered by the tragedy that took the lives of 11 Israelis. Combine that with his early financial backer being an owner of a local taco franchise with little boxing acumen, and it’s “Tacoma, we have a problem”.

Contrast that with the 1976 Olympics, which saw Sugar Ray Leonard being the breakout star of an Olympic boxing team that captured five gold medals. This made a huge difference in marketing and visibility. That team’s performance combined with Ray Leonard’s engaging personality and megawatt smile put boxing back on the map in the America. Leonard got the contracts, endorsements, and favorable early matchmaking. What did Seales get 18 months after his debut? He got a beating from from future all-time great Middleweight Champion Marvin Hagler!

Before his hiccup versus Hagler, Seales had been an impressive 21-0. After a few tune ups, Seales rematched Hagler in November 1974 and early on, gave the bruiser from Brockton a boxing lesson. Hagler came on strong at the end and battered Ray to even up the fight, which was declared a draw. These two promising young Middleweights did not have their rubber match for nearly five years. Between his second and third fights with Hagler, Sugar Ray Seales had a few setbacks on his way up the ladder. He lost to big-hitting fringe contender Eugene Hart in 1975, but defeated future champion Mike Rossman and rebounded to win the NABF Middleweight title from George Cooper in 1976.

Shortly afterward, Seales was matched against European Middleweight Champion (and future World Champion) Alan Minter. Ray lost by TKO in five rounds. He then lost his next fight against undefeated (22-0) contender Ronnie Harris. It seemed as if Seales was on the outside looking in and was doomed to remain the bridesmaid, but never the bride. Picking himself up and showing he was still a viable contender, Seales went on an impressive run, winning more than 15 straight bouts over the next two years and capturing the USBA Middleweight Title in the process. He was poised to crack the top 10 in a division that was once again wide open due to the retirement of longtime champion Carlos Monzon.

Unfortunately, Ray fell just short and lost back to back bouts to future 154lb champion Ayub Kalule and Hagler, who blitzed him in one round. Following his loss to Hagler, Ray’s career was just spinning its wheels. He made a great showing in his victory against Art Harris in 1980, but dropped back down again losing to future contender Dwight Davison later that year. Up again, he won the NABF again in 1982, but lost it to James Shuler. Seales had one more fight, a TKO victory versus Max Hord in 1983 before detached retinas and the threat of blindness forced him to retire at age 30.

Ray Seales’ Olympic parallel Sugar Ray Leonard went on to reach the absolute pinnacle of the sport, winning multiple world titles in a many weight classes and defeating such immortals as Thomas Hearns, Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran, and Marvin Hagler. I think it’s safe to say that Leonard got to where he was due to his skills and talent, but he was also handled extremely well both financially and in the fights that were made for him. He had the ability to be a huge star and a great fighter at the same time, a truly rare feat. Sugar Ray Seales? He had the talent to go further than he did, but he didn’t have the same breaks or exposure.

Despite his success as a professional (57-8, 40 knockouts), many look at Seales as a “could have been”, and that he couldn’t get over the hump against the best of his era, like Kalule, Minter, and Hagler. He fought at a near championship level as a professional and had he not competed in very competitive era, he might even have been a champion. Had he been handled better from the outset, Seales at a bare minimum could have at least had a couple of big money fights. Let’s remember how promising his career was immediately following the 1972 Olympics. Combine this with his sterling amateur record and his Olympic Gold Medal, Seales had a very successful career.

Sugar Ray Seales’ post boxing life has been far from easy. Many surgeries on his damaged eyes ruined his finances and he was penniless by the mid 1980s. Luckily, subsequent surgeries restored enough vision in his right eye that he was able to work. For many years, Ray worked as a teacher for Autistic children in Tacoma. Now located in Indianapolis, Seales is a boxing trainer and is happily married.

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