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B. Riley & Co. and The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation Present “Big Fighters, Big Cause” 4th Annual Charity Fight Night

Los Angeles – B. Riley & Co. and The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation present The 4th Annual “Big Fighters, Big Cause” Charity Fight Night to benefit The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation in its support for Juvenile Diabetes Research and The Wounded Warrior Project. This prestigious invitation-only Red Carpet event will take place at The Santa Monica Pier on May 21, 2013.
Tommy Davidson will be the Master of Ceremony for the evening, which will feature a Professional Boxing fight card commissioned by the California State Athletic Commission. Songstress Franchesca Robi (daughter of The Platters’ Paul Robi) will sing the National Anthem to ring in the fights. The fight card will consist of four professional bouts.

****Last Year’s Event Recap Video:

The event anticipates a targeted audience of over 1000 guests, comprised of C-suite executives from nearly 200 public companies across a range of sectors, leading institutional investors, high net worth individuals, financial services professionals, celebrities, sports legends, and other high-profile individuals.

Zota Pop, a Top 40s band comprised of world-class musicians, will provide musical entertainment along with DJ BABY CHINO, the 10-year-old DJ phenomenon who has been seen on Nickelodeon’s hit show “Figure It Out”.

Rusnak, Maserati, BMW and Porsche, part of the Rusnak Auto Group is proud to support the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation. Sugar Ray Leonard will honor Medtronic, Inc. by presenting an Award in the ring for its work in Juvenile Diabetes with the Insulin Pump. The Hauser Insurance Group is also a proud supporter of the cause. The evening will be set against a rich environment for both charitable and business development opportunities.

The lovely ladies from Crown Diva Boutique & Pageant Academy will sell raffle tickets throughout the evening, benefitting the cause. Guests will have the opportunity to win spectacular prizes. A true highlight of the evening will be the Charitable Live Auction. Item Sparkling Hill Resort, a European-inspired wellness resort known as the first resort in the world to incorporate Swarovski crystal elements into every aspect of its design, stands out. The winner of this Live Auction Item will receive a gift certificate for a 5 night Couples Escape in a stunning penthouse suite, with access to a wide range of wellness treatments featured at the resort’s world-renowned Kurspa – a 40,000 square foot spa providing over 100 treatments and therapies.

Guests will enjoy an abundance of delicious food and beverages. Legends Beer will offer its premium craft beer in the Legends 100% recyclable aluminum bottle. Legends believes that consumers can have both great beer, and interesting content with the same package.

Other fantastic beverages available to guests are Asombroso Tequila, Monster Energy Drink, Hansen, Sneaky Pete’s Beverage, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and Weaver’s Coffee & Tea. More delectable food sponsors include: Beachy Cream, Sheila G’s The Original Brownie Brittle Company, Garden of Eating Catering, Good Greek Grub, Jalisco’s Mobile Taco Grill, Monsoon Café, Rollin’ Rib BBQ, Sabra Dipping Co., SUSHI POPPER, and Sweet Insanity Bake Shop.

The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation

Was launched by boxing legend and six-time world champion Sugar Ray Leonard to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research. The mission of The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation (SRLF) is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. After watching his father struggle with Diabetes and its complications for years, Ray is very passionate about finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes. Ray is also very passionate about empowering wounded warriors dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and other lasting effects of combat. Part of the proceeds from this event will be going to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). For more information about the Foundation and their cause, please visit: SugarRayLeonard.com

B. Riley & Co.

A leading full-service investment bank, provides a full array of corporate finance, research, sales, trading and otcqx dad services to corporate, institutional and high net worth clients. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Newport Beach, Boston and Atlanta, the firm is recognized for its distinguished Equity Research. Their investment banking services include merger and acquisitions advisory to public and private companies, initial and secondary public offerings, and institutional private placements. Engaged by both companies and investors, their Corporate Governance Advisory Services Group helps maximize value for shareholders. Founded in 1997, the firm began by successfully targeting small-capitalization California-based companies and has won a reputation for providing proprietary, unbiased and often contrarian equity research coverage of companies that are under-followed or misunderstood by Wall Street. For more information, please visit www.brileyco.com

***Last Year’s Event Recap Video: http://youtu.be/0ibKa82m300

GBK ABOUT GBK:

GBK, formerly GBK Productions, is a luxury lifestyle gifting and special events company, specializing in entertainment marketing integration. Formed in 2000 by Gavin Keilly, the company’s Founder and CEO, GBK consists of five divisions: GBK Celebrity Gifting, GBK Special Events, GBK Weddings, GBK Charitable Consulting and GBK Marketing/Public Relations. Widely known in the entertainment industry for bringing that little extra something into the Gifting Lounge environment, GBK offers its clients a full range of marketing services. For more information on Gavin B. Keilly (CEO), Carla Domen (VP) or GBK,, please go to: gbkproductions.com.

Sugar Ray Leonard talks to us about his new SRL Foundation to help and find a cure for children who suffer from diabetes.

The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation to help find a cure for juvenile diabetes, set up a booth at GBK Gifting suites for the Oscars 2012 and Sugar Ray came by with his family to check it all out.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HILdg3KDtc]

We visited his booth and then interviewed Sugar Ray. I used to work for a Medtronic Minimed who make portable insulin pump for people with Type I diabetes and so I know that diabetes is already become an epidemic that needs our attention and kids are getting it at alarming rates.

Type II diabetes can often be taken care of with proper diet, exercise and sometimes, medicine, but Type I is a lifelong chronic disease, that is lethal if not treated and though treatment is effective for most it is not a cure.

Visit Sugar Ray Leonard’s website. I looks like he spends most of his time giving back to many great causes. Sugar Ray, thank you for your time and for all you do to help. – JW

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Sugar Ray Leonard

From Wikipedia

Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother’s favorite singer, Ray Charles. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Wilfred Benítez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler.^[1]^[2] Leonard was named “Boxer of the Decade” for the 1980s.^[3]

You can see samples of my work at http://www.DavidIlan.com.

Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation

Sugar Ray Leonard has been the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk for a Cure, for many years.

Sugar Ray and his wife Bernadette have founded the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation to help raise awareness, fund research and help find a cure to Juvenile Diabetes and child obesity.

Sugar Ray hosts a yearly Fight Night in Los Angeles to help Knock Out Diabetes. This year it will be held at the Santa Monica Pier on May 22nd, 2012.

It will be a star studded evening to raise funds and awareness of this awful disease that is harming our children.

The Big Fight

Sugar Ray Leonard’s Book The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring is Sugar Ray Leonard’s brutally honest and uplifting memoir reveals in intimate detail for the first time the complex man behind the boxer.

The Olympic hero, multi-championship winner, and beloved athlete waged his own personal battle with depression, rage, addiction, and greed.

In this unflinching and inspiring autobiography, the boxing legend faces his single greatest competitor: himself.

Coming from a tumultuous, impoverished household and a dangerous neighborhood on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, Sugar Ray Leonard rose swiftly and skillfully through the ranks of amateur boxing-and eventually went on to win a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics. With an extremely ill father and no endorsement deals, Leonard decided to go pro.

The Big Fight takes readers behind the scenes of a notoriously corrupt sport and chronicles the evolution of a champion, as Leonard prepares for the greatest fights of his life-against Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, and Wilfred Benitez. At the same time Leonard fearlessly reveals his own contradictions and compulsions, his infidelity, and alcohol and cocaine abuse.

With honesty, humor, and hard-won perspective, Leonard comes to terms with both triumph and struggle-and presents a gripping portrait of remarkable strength, courage, and resilience, both in and out of the ring.

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars Supports Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation

LOS ANGELES, CA – March 27, 2012
Daisy Rock Girl Guitars, the original girl guitar company, proudly supports the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation with the donation of a Wildwood Artist Acoustic-Electric Pink Burst guitar, featured at the 2012 Academy Awards Nominees and Presenters Celebrity Gift Lounge, hosted by GBK Productions. The guitar, sought by request of the George Lopez family, was signed by a wide variety of celebrities and will be auctioned to benefit the foundation’s research and awareness towards finding a cure for juvenile diabetes.

GBK Productions, the luxury lifestyle gift lounge and special events company, hosted the Annual Celebrity Gift Lounge late-February, honoring the 2012 Academy Awards Nominees and Presenters. Notable Hollywood celebrities were present and took part in signing the Daisy Rock guitar, including Emmy^® Award-winning actor Hector Elizondo, Sasha Pieterse (Heroes, Pretty Little Liars), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins, Glee), Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer, The Office), comedian Kevin Nealon, and many others.

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard shares his heart for those stricken by juvenile diabetes: “My wife Bernadette and I put [the foundation] together about two years ago because we were so touched by so many lives that diabetes has affected—especially the kids. We’re looking forward to the day that we eradicate diabetes, juvenile diabetes, from our innocent kids . . . just being of service is a wonderful feeling.” Of the donations, Leonard commented: “The memorabilia that we have gathered – gloves, an amazing guitar with names of superstars – and we’re just looking forward to raising a lot of money for a wonderful cause.”

Tish Ciravolo, President and Founder of Daisy Rock Girl Guitars commented: “Daisy Rock is so happy to be able to donate the Wildwood Artist Acoustic-Electric Pink Burst guitar to the Sugar Ray Leonard foundation which was requested by George Lopez and his family. It is such an honor to see these awesome and entertaining celebrities taking a moment out of their very busy schedule at the Academy Awards to stop and sign our guitar. Just look at who signed and how many signatures we got—SWEET!”

www.SugarRayLeonard.com

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