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Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing Fight Attendance

Date confirmed in Washington Post (“last Thursday [December 7, 1989]”)

Washington Post (December 10, 1989)

When the fight was over, everyone went to the dance except the winner, who repaired to the emergency room for 30 stitches in his right eyebrow, 20 in his left eyelid and 10 in his upper lip, which turned to cherry preserves in the fourth round and trickled down his chin for eight more. He won all 12 rounds with peculiar ease, so the blood flooding one eye socket at the finish was something of a mirage. Boxing is a sport of mirages, though some of them take Novocain. The audience sits safely by and complains only in two events: if the fight is too vicious; or, if like last Thursday night, it is not vicious enough. Michael Jackson, Barbara Walters and Bo Derek were among those sitting by for Leonard-Duran III.

Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

Leonard entered the ring to Michael’s ‘Leave Me Alone’, and went on to win a unanimous decision.