Editing Sugar Ray Leonard (section)

===Early professional career===
{{main|Pete Ranzany vs. Sugar Ray Leonard}}
When Leonard decided to turn professional, Janks Morton introduced him to Mike Trainer, a friend of his who was an attorney. Trainer talked 24 of his friends and clients into underwriting Leonard's career with an investment of $21,000 to be repaid within four years at 8% interest. Trainer then made Leonard the sole stockholder in Sugar Ray Leonard, Inc. [[Angelo Dundee]], [[Muhammad Ali]]'s trainer, was brought in to be Leonard's trainer and manager. Many of the people being considered wanted absolute control and a cut somewhere near the manager's traditional 33%. Dundee had a different proposition. Although he would prescribe the training procedures, he would leave the day-to-day work to Dave Jacobs and Janks Morton. He would also choose Leonard's opponents. For his services, Dundee would get 15% of Leonard's purse.<ref name= noble />{{rp|65–68}}

Leonard made his professional debut on February 5, 1977, before a crowd of 10,270 at the Civic Center in [[Baltimore]]. He was paid $40,044 for the fight. His opponent was Luis "The Bull" Vega, whom he defeated by a six-round unanimous decision.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Pat |last=Putnam |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1977/02/14/the-day-the-gold-turned-green |title=The Day The Gold Turned Green |magazine=Sports Illustrated |date=February 14, 1977 |access-date=December 7, 2021}}</ref> After the fight, Leonard paid back his $21,000 loan to the investors.<ref name= noble />{{rp|75}}

In his fourteenth professional fight, Leonard fought his first world-ranked opponent, [[Floyd Mayweather Sr.|Floyd Mayweather]], who was ranked seventeenth. The fight took place on September 11, 1978.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bond |first=Nick |title=On This Day: Sugar Ray Leonard knocked out Floyd Mayweather - Boxing News |url=https://www.boxingnewsonline.net/on-this-day-sugar-ray-leonard-knocked-out-floyd-mayweather/ |access-date=May 2, 2022 |website=www.boxingnewsonline.net |date=September 9, 2019 |language=en-GB}}</ref> Leonard won by a tenth-round knockout.<ref name= noble />{{rp|93}} A month later, Leonard defeated his old amateur nemesis Randy Shields by a ten-round unanimous decision.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_4EpAAAAIBAJ&pg=1558,971183|title=Lewiston Evening Journal, October 7, 1978 |via=ews.google.com |access-date=November 4, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19780911&id=RkZQAAAAIBAJ&pg=6756,2430288 |title=Sugar Ray Soured Floyd |work=The Evening Independent}}</ref>

On August 12, 1979, Leonard knocked out [[Pete Ranzany]] in four rounds to win the [[North American Boxing Federation|NABF]] [[Welterweight]] Championship.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hMYRAAAAIBAJ&pg=2969,7439654 |title=The Spokesman-Review, August 13, 1979 |via=news.google.com |date=August 13, 1979 |access-date=November 4, 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 
The following month, he made his first title defense against Andy Price.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2O0IoWb2cM|title = - YouTube|website = YouTube}}</ref> Price, an up-and-coming contender who was sponsored by [[Marvin Gaye]], had a reputation for prolonged bouts in earlier fights and was believed by sports reporters to defeat or give a long fight to Leonard. Although Price landed multiple good blows, Leonard knocked him out in the first round, advancing his record to 25–0 with 16 knockouts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w8csAAAAIBAJ&pg=3607,6629526 |title=Star-News, September 29, 1979 |via=news.google.com |date=September 29, 1979 |access-date=November 4, 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>