Sugar, noted as well for his tobacco smoking habits, has also written several boxing books as well as baseball and wrestling books, and he has a column in a tobacco magazine named Smoke. He also wrote a book named The 100 Greatest Athletes of all Time.
His work as a writer brought him fame around boxing circles, and that, in turn , gave him a chance to prove himself as an actor, when he participated, in 1992, in Night and the City alongside Robert De Niro, and in 1996, in The Great White Hype, with Samuel L. Jackson.
The Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame has announced that Sugar will be hosting their 2003 induction dinner on May 17.
Sugar is also considered to be a good autograph signer by autograph collectors and experts. He has been called Runyonnesque (in reference to Damon Runyon) by Bob Costas, and one of the foremost historians alive, by the Boston Globe newspaper.