Boxing: At last a visit from the legend that is Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard is a living legacy of the days when fights were fights and champions were champions. If you had to pick the top trinity of all time, from any era, he surely would be up there with his idol, Muhammad Ali, and his namesake, Sugar Ray Robinson.

Boxing's first $100m man never stepped into a British ring, but he will do so to deafening applause on the night of 5 April, when one of the fighters he now promotes, Vince Phillips, challenges the unbeaten Ricky Hatton for the World Boxing Union light-welterweight title. It may be a bauble compared to the glittering prizes Leonard amassed during a career which spanned a quarter of a century, but his presence will ensure that Manchester's MEN Arena will again be packed to its 20,000 capacity.

Leonard won titles in five divisions, from welter to light-heavy, and was an Olympic champion in Montreal in 1976. His sweet skills found an antidote to them all, whether sluggers or stylists. His swivelling thrusts and parries had the hallmark of a cavalier, and there were few better at delivering the coup de grâce.

He is 46 but still has the unblemished looks that thrilled. What is his secret? "Unfortunately I did not find the fountain of youth," he laughed when we spoke last week. "People tell me I still look young for my years but I think it has a lot to do with my wife and my kids, and also being a grandfather. That has an enormous influence on being like a little kid yourself."

The Comeback Kid, in his case. His last fight was just six years ago, when he lost to Hector Camacho. It was the fifth time he had returned to the ring, and the first time he had been stopped.

His record is filled with names who make ring aficionados drool: Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler. Thomas Hearns, Wilfredo Benitez. It was Hearns, the original "Hitman" whose sobriquet Hatton has adopted, that Leonard recalls as his hardest opponent, even more so that the fearsome Duran, who memorably turned away declaring "No mas, no mas" in their second encounter.

"Mentally Hearns had no fear," Leonard said. "He was like a warrior, a true gladiator. Before a fight you looked at him and you knew he was looking back thinking, 'Brother, it's you or me'. He was real kamikaze."

Despite his fabulous wealth, a happy second marriage and newfound success as a promoter and low-handicap golfer, his life has had its vicissitudes – a detached retina after a training session in 1982, repaired by surgery, and more damagingly a flirtation with alcohol and cocaine when he suffered depression early in the 1990s. "They were difficult times," he admitted. "But I was lucky. I had good people around me who helped me get through it."

Becoming a boxing promoter, he says, is a natural extension, because he has spent his life promoting himself. "I am still in love with boxing. It is an incredible sport, one that takes kids off the streets and helps turn them into decent human beings. Boxers for the most part have always been decent guys. They are out there here showing their stuff and trying to prove themselves to the world.

"What I want to do as a promoter is reintroduce boxers and boxing to the public, and show the sport for what it is, not what they are beginning to think it is. I think we are on our way to taking boxing back to where it was back in the Seventies and Eighties, where champions fought champions. Then you didn't just wave some meaningless belt and say you were the best in the world, you showed them by fighting and beating those who were the best in the world."

Leonard believes the veteran Phillips, the only man to have beaten the Australia-based Russian Kostya Tszyu, now universally regarded as the best light-welterweight around, will be the defining test of Hatton's so-far- impressive career.

"It is a pleasure for me to work with men like Vince Phillips, and to be associated with Frank Warren. It is a really intriguing fight," he said. "Vince may be in the twilight of his career, but he still has ambitions to get back in contention among the big names.

"We know Ricky will blast away at the old guy, but now we shall see if this young kid has what it takes. It should be a perfect match."

When someone like Leonard says that, you have to believe him. He is not the sort to squander his expertise on mugs or make-believers.

As Warren said: "No disrespect to the fighters, but when Sugar Ray gets into the ring you won't be able to keep the roof on. He is one of those true legends who will command respect wherever he goes for the rest of his life." From Montreal to Manchester.