Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard has said that he is glad that he finally opened up about the sexual abuse that he suffered as a teenager at the hands of his coach because the horrific secret was "killing" him.

In an interview with CNN news on Thursday, the 55-year-old boxing champ explained how much the confession has helped him come to terms with the abuse, and RadarOnline.com has video of the heart wrenching interview.

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"I had to get that out because it was killing me inside, I was dying inside. I told no one. I kept this to myself for 30 something years," Leonard told the news network.

"I said it to my first wife Juanita but I said it under the influences of alcohol, because a guy doesn't talk about those things, especially me as a fighter. I could have kicked their (his abuser's) butt but I didn’t."

Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, in his upcoming book The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring, said he was sexually abused by a "prominent Olympic boxing coach" when he was 15-years-old.

According to the New York Times, the 55-year-old boxing champ said the incident took place after the coach (who he did not name) took him, and another teen boxer, to a match in New York in 1971.

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