Life after boxing proves to be a lucrative business for fighters who have achieved legendary status.
Marvin Hagler
While promoters made millions of dollars from great heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Lennox Lewis and middleweights such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Julio Cesar Chavez, it's the agents who today make the cash for famous fighters outside the ring.
Leonard is the latest fighter to announce a celebrity tour with pay-and-see social events planned for Bangkok on Apr 5, Pattaya on Apr 6 and Singapore on Apr 9.
Leonard's latest business trip to southeast Asia follows Mike Tyson's "legend tour" of New Zealand and Australia where fans paid up to US$1000 for a dinner with Iron Mike.
A born-again Tyson stunned a press conference when asked if there was anything he'd like to do while in Sydney.
"Eat fresh nuts with wholemeal bread and honey," he replied and told reporters he was a vegan and lover of peace.
Still, a far less feisty Tyson commands an official daily hiring rate of US$200,000 as well as first-class air tickets and hotel accommodation for him and six others. Sugar Ray's daily fee is a moderate US$60,000.
However, the living legend most in demand _ other than Ali, who's no longer available for public engagement due to Parkinson's Disease _ is 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler, who retired from boxing in 1990 after losing to Leonard on points in what many consider was the greatest superfight ever staged.
After the fight, which Leonard won on a split-decision, Hagler moved to Rome. He became a famous actor in Italian action movies before joining the lecture circuit, where he is now an in-demand speaker.
Still fighting fit _ but much wiser with many years under his belt _ Hagler says he's "impressed" that so many boxers are able to "adapt to life after fighting for a living".
As a fighter, Hagler was regarded by many as the best of his era, boasting a six-year and seven-month reign as undisputed middleweight champion.
Yet, in the beginning of his career, Hagler struggled to find opponents, having being told by Joe Frazier that: "You have three strikes against you _ you're black, you're a southpaw, and you're good".
"Boxing was good for me but life has got better. Living is about one chapter closing and another opening," Hagler said.
"There's been new chapters for Mike Tyson, who's now enjoying being himself without having to fight anyone.
Other great fighters have the chance in life to know the glory, the pain and the exhilaration of the fight game and then get to live in a whole new world with the same body and the same life."
Hagler's years as a movie star taught him to take command of an audience with his presence.
"When you're fighting for a championship you know the whole world is watching how you perform. In acting and with public speaking, there's also expectation and you have to deliver," he said.
Hagler looks back on the 1990s as the "glorious days for boxing" before the rise of other "undefined" combat sports and cage fighting.
"Boxing, like all sports, has to adapt," he said.
"It's got to find ways of looking after those athletes who want to be professional boxers by choice."
Sugar Ray Leonard