Sugar also appeared in several movies playing himself, including "Night and the City", "The Great White Hype" and "Rocky Balboa". Interviews with Sugar feature in "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson". Sugar had been referred to as "Runyonesque" (in reference to Damon Runyon) by Bob Costas, and "one of the foremost historians alive," by the "Boston Globe". Along with Lou Albano, he helped write "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling." He wrote a regular sports column for "Smoke Magazine".