BOXING legend Sugar Ray Leonard proved a knockout hit as guest of honour of the Steve Prescott Foundation at a special fundraising event.

St Helens own boxing hero Martin Murray was in the audience at Sutton Leisure Centre who listened to Sugar Ray recount tales of his titanic clashes against fearsome fighters Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns.

He was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses. He won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1976, was named Boxer of the Decade for the 1980s by Ring Magazine and was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.

Martin Blondel general manager of the SPF said: "Sugar Ray was a true gent. It was great listening to him talk about his fights and what he has achieved throughout his career. We had around 350 people on the day and we raised around £15,000.

"One guy, Barry Brown, from St Helens is climbing Kilimanjaro this year for the SPF and donated a Muhammad Ali boxing mit and poster which went for auction at £4,200. "

Martin said the audience also included Linzi Prescott and her sons Koby and Taylor, Steve's brother Neil, his dad Eric and former Warrington Wolves stars Adrian Morley and Lee Briers.

Martin continued: "Martin Murray got up with Jamie Moore, former European light middleweight champion, and spoke for ten minutes. He was keen to announce his next fight which he hopes will be at Langtree Park, but if not the Echo Arena.

"Sugar Ray said what a true warrior Martin is and watched his fight against Golovkin, who he said could go on to one of the greatest ever boxers.

"It couldn't have gone any better and we are already looking at world class stars to come to St Helens.

"We don't want to hold a normal sportsman's dinner. It has to be something special like this."