Legendary Boxing Writer Bert Randolph Sugar Dead at 74

After a long bout with lung cancer, Bert Randolph Sugar has passed away at the age of 74. 

The USA Today's Bob Velin reported that Sugar was surrounded by family in his final moments in the Northern Westchester Medical Center in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Sugar rose to fame as a boxing writer. He evolved into one of the most knowledgeable and entertaining boxing historians the world has ever seen. 

He penned over 80 books in his lifetime and still found time to be the editor and publisher of Boxing Illustrated and Ring magazine.

Sugar didn't just write, either. He loved to talk about boxing and can be seen in numerous documentaries and interviews talking about the sweet science. 

You will be hard-pressed to find one of those on-camera appearances where he is not sporting his fedora or smoking a cigar. 

He had countless stories and insights about a seemingly limitless amount of fights, and he always packaged them with his self-effacing charm. 

As Velin points out, Sugar would often follow up a prediction of an underdog by saying, "But then again, I picked the Japanese in World War II."

While Sugar's claim to fame is commenting on boxing, it was not his first career of choice. 

Sugar passed the bar exam upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 1961 with a JD and MBA. He then embarked on a decade of work in the advertising business. Luckily for sports fans everywhere, he began his career as a writer soon after.