Ray Seales

Sugar Ray Seales took a 92 and nine record to the 1972 Olympics. His amateur titles included the 1971 AAU and North American championships and numerous Golden Gloves championships in the Pacific Northwest. To win his gold medal, Seales had to fight five times and won all his bouts by decisions.

Seales turned pro shortly thereafter and fought mostly as a middleweight. He won his first 20 fights and it looked like he was headed for a title shot. But in August 1974 he was defeated by Marvin Hagler, and later fought a draw with Hagler. Seales came back and started winning again, but was KO’ed in 1976 by Alan Minter. Once again he made a comeback winning a series of fights against good quality opponents and winning the United States Boxing Association title in the process. This came to an end when he was narrowly outpointed by Ayub Kalule in late 1978 and then suffered a brutal first round knockout at the hands of Hagler in their third meeting at the start of 1979. He ended his career in 1983 with a professional record of 57 wins and 8 losses

Seales was forced to retire because of poor vision, as he became almost blind in both eyes, the result of detached retinae he suffered during his fighting career. Many years later surgery restored most of the vision to his right eye. He worked as a high school teacher of autistic students until 2014 but later,after the death of his wife, he returned to what he considered his home town of Tacoma and found himself homeless and living in sheltered accommodation. A GoFundMe campaign from his fans eventually enabled him to move into his own apartment.