{"id":385068,"date":"2026-04-06T18:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385068\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:19:11","slug":"bts-suga-reveals-stage-name-inspired-by-boxing-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385068\/","title":{"rendered":"BTS’ SUGA Reveals Stage Name Inspired By Boxing Legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

BTS’ SUGA
\n My Stage Name Packs A Punch
\n … Inspired By Boxing Legend!!!<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n April 6, 2026
\n 7:09 AM PDT\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"suga-sugar-ray-leonard-main-getty-1\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

BTS rapper SUGA<\/a> is clarifying the origin of his stage name … revealing it’s not short for “shooting guard” after all — it takes inspiration from a completely different sport!!<\/p>\n

The Bangtan Boys did an interview with WIRED amid their “ARIRANG” album press tour … where they answered the internet’s biggest questions about the massive K-pop group.<\/p>\n

When it came to Yoongi around the 13-minute mark, a prompt asked “SUGA name meaning” … and V and Jung Kook both responded “shooting guard,” but the 33-year-old actually corrected them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I can finally explain this now,” SUGA said. “It’s not [shooting guard]. It was annoying to explain, so I just said that, But actually, it’s Sugar Ray Leonard<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"sugar<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

He went on to also shoutout UFC superstar Sean O’Malley<\/a>, who also goes by “Suga” with no ‘R’ … pointing out how it’s a popular moniker in combat sports, but the Big Hit Music founder deserves the credit for giving it to him, too.<\/p>\n

“There’s a legendary boxer named Sugar Ray Leonard, and I didn’t come up with it. Mr. Bang [Si-Hyuk] suggested it because he liked boxing so much. So people who have technical striking skills, the specialists are called ‘Suga.'”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"sean<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

And since he’s been known to be a technical MC, the name fit.<\/p>\n

The story was news to all the members — even J-Hope<\/a> admitted it was his first time finding out about the explanation.<\/p>\n

SUGA said he went with the “shooting guard” story for a while since it was much easier … and he was tired of trying to explain the REAL inspiration.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"bts<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The basketball reference makes sense — after all SUGA was a global ambassador<\/a> for the league a few years back … and has hit up several games himself.<\/p>\n

But straight from the man himself — it’s a nod to boxing!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BTS’ SUGA My Stage Name Packs A Punch … Inspired By Boxing Legend!!! Published April 6, 2026 7:09…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,43,112,2510,4526],"class_list":{"0":"post-385068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-news","15":"tag-tmz-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}