Introducing.. Leland Hardy.. a visionary.

Leland Hardy is not your usual heavyweight fighter, in fact his less than stellar career record of 4 wins 4 losses and a draw doesn't do him justice, he is far more than just that..  Leland's roles vary, from sports agent, stockbroker, translator, and international business advisor. His real story starts in 1993, Hardy was the recipient of Indiana University of Pennsylvanias Distinguished Alumni Award, a fabulous achievement for a man who openly admitted that he didn't fully apply himself in high school.. while at Indiana university Leland committed himself to his study's, earning a bachelors degree in Marketing, while mentoring less than capable students to achieve their own high standards..  Hardy would also steer himself in another direction, the Critical languages program, a system that would pair students with partners native in the students chosen language..  Hardy had realised a flair in acquiring languages back in high school, where he picked up French and Spanish at an advanced level, winning a national Spanish speaking competition and was now studying both Japanese and Chinese..  Whilst at University Hardy accidentally stumbled upon boxing, taking part in an boxing exhibition he found himself quite adept inside the ropes, so much so that in 1983 after training at the Indiana county boxing club, found himself winning the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves heavyweight championship alongside guys like Vincent Bouleware and Jerry Owens. This opened up the opportunity to box for a place on the much heralded 1984 Olympic squad, unfortunately the level of competition was high and Hardy wouldn't qualify, so instead of heading to Los Angeles for the 1984 games, Hardy would enroll in the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The program involved a solid 2 years of course work to earn an MBA and a second master’s degree, requiring fluency in a foreign language and, in Hardy’s case, involved studying at the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute of which he would appear in the programs first graduating class.
Leland Hardy continued to box alongside working at 245 park avenue New York at the Bear Stearns brokerage firm, as was working in finance, he earning himself the colourful nickname as the fighting stockbroker and in 1989 his epic victory over the then unbeaten Ike Padilla, was heralded as the greatest prelim fight in MSG Boxing history..  Despite the scintillating display, the victory would only life Hardys boxing record to 2/2/1, it was obvious that with his many impressive academic attributes , his future lay in more lucrative areas..
Fate struck in 1985, while watching the James Broad v Tim Witherspoon bout, Hardy overheard the commentator announcing the fight mention an upcoming good will tour by Muhammad Ali over in China, then joke about being the tour interpreter, Hardy saw an opportunity and called his friend and boxing journalist Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia daily news and told him of the Ali tour, emphasising that he had to be on that trip..  Smith didn't fully understand why, but after later finding out that Leland was completely fluent in Chinese and himself a proficient heavyweight boxer, pulled some strings to put Hardy in touch with the Ali people..   Hardy would meet Ali at the Chinese embassy in DC and later prove himself invaluable in negotiating visas for Ali and his while entourage..  Leland would act as interpreter for Ali for many years, developing a bond and friendship with the former champion, later accompanying Ali to the funeral of his great rival Joe Frazier in Hardy's hometown of Philadelphia..  Hardy would later work alongside Evander Holyfield and Don King on consecutive visits to China, along with acting as international business interpreter for General Motors in China..
Hardy had flirted with becoming a single player sports agent but was a visionary, always looking one step ahead, and in the mid 1990s he saw meteoric rise of rap music into the main stream and wanted to marry that success with the world of sports.. However when Hardy's conversations with high profile artists LL Cool J and Sean Coombs fizzled out, along came Percy Miller, better known as Master P..   Miller had taken a $10.000 enterprise in his No Limits enterprises to a $400 Million industry which now had 6 divisions, including real estate, movies and now Sports management..  Miller saw Hardy's drive and potential and embraced him as the face of No Limits Sports management ..  Miller knew that Hardy had the raw tools for the job, but realised that to add more leverage to his status, the No Limits branding offered him more weight to negotiate with..   In their first year No Limits secured a contract with Heisman trophy winner Ricky Williams along with several other high profile young NFL standouts..
Leland Hardy's other more prominent sports clients were tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. Their father, Richard Williams, read about Hardy as a sports agent in a Sports illustrated issue when the girls were just six and seven years old. Impressed by Hardy’s focus on academics in conjunction with his sports and business interests, Williams hired Hardy as the family’s business advisor, a role he kept for close to 16 years while the sisters climbed to the pinnacle of women’s tennis. Hardy's financial background helped him to start to cultivate a system to help prevent vulnerable athletes from being taken advantage of by managers and agents. Hardy referred to Joe Louis and Kareem Jabarr as examples of high profile athletes who ended up broke from poor investment deals despite lucrative careers. Hardy was responsible for launching BICEPS, the Business Institute for Continuing Education in Professional Sports, at the Wharton School in 2002. He developed a curriculum that focused on basic academic fundamentals: reading financial statements, investing in real estate and the stock market, the principles of accounting, saving for retirement, and Understanding yourself as a brand.Another project that engages Hardy's time these days is 'Very Pretty Skin', a line of cosmeceuticals he has created with his long time wife and plastic surgeon Rosetta Garries, along with owning the rights to more than a thousand domain names including his most valuable purchase, the domain name www.newyork.com. He is the original registered owner having purchased the URL in 1994, and has turned down reported multimillion-dollar offers to sell..  Hardy still trains as often as he can as boxing lies close to his heart, he was more recently working with Philadelphia heavyweight Fast Eddie Chambers.  Leland Hardy is that rarest of creatures who is never satisfied with mediocrity, and will more than likely constantly reinvent himself until he can no longer function..  you'd be hard pushed to find a more interesting or engaging man in any walk of life..  Leland Hardy is an incredible character.