Aaron Pryor vs Julio Cesar Chavez Sr

I will take Pryor to edge JCC in a war

 

I really like Pryor in this.

I think he's all wrong for Chavez. Way too busy. Throws every punch in the book. Uppercuts with both hands. And his ability to slide over a step while continuing to punch I think works wonders. He'd pepper a guy at 11 o'clock and slide over and be at 1 o'clock.

Nobody has done that better since Aaron Pryor.

I think that forces Chavez into his defense game on the outside. That shifting of Aaron Pryor. That makes Julio one no where near as effective as he is at his sweet circumference.

I always thought Randall was always a tough opponent for Chavez. He boxed and moved and operated a lot at 11 and 1 o'clock. You don't want to fight Chavez at noon.

Aaron won't be at noon much. And he'll throw 80 punches a round. I don't think Chavez gets off 35 or 40. He'd pose or concentrate on defense with that kind of volume punching. And thereby not do what he does best.

So, he drops the rounds. And once he's down say 8 rounds to 2, I think it becomes academic and Julio goes into a happy to get to the final bell type of effort. So it's become less competitive as it got late in the fight, as opposed to seeing Chavez becoming more effective.

Decision bout all the way, unless one of these guys gets cut.

Come to think of it, Chavez against Cervantes is a real good fight too. I wouldn't exactly count that guy out, but I think Julio would be much more effective against him than Pryor.

 

Nice post!

 

Although I agree that this is a pretty good post, it is pitting prime Aaron Pryor against the declining JCC. By the time Julio fought Randall he was no longer the force of nature that he had been for the previous 10+ Years. Had Randall fought JCC a few years earlier I believe Julio would have handled him with relative ease. As to the fight at hand, it would be an incredible battle that could go either way. If I had to pick, I would lean slightly to JCC, but wouldn't want to put any serious money on it. It would be a magnificent war between 2 All Time Greats with radically different styles.

 

Pryor wins because he had a plan B..

If his swarming style didn't work..He could box with the best of them.

Chavez could not fight backing up..and he sure as hell couldn't outbox Pryor if his straight ahead style didn't work.

Aaron didn't have any quit in him..The same couldn't be said for Chavez.

The hawk would have been too much.

 

Disagree here. Chavez was not a one-dimensional fighter at all. Watch the Joe Luis Ramirez fight, especially the earlier rounds, to see that Chavez could definitely box when he felt like it.

 

Call me crazy, but I always thought that amatuer pedigree and boxing prowess of Randall was a style problem for Chavez. Always.

He kept those hands up high and brought those hands back high to their proper position. Nice footwork and nice hook off the jab. I just felt he didn't give automatic openings for Julio the way so many of his opponents did.

But my mistake was not laying big $$ on him as a 15-1 underdog. But he was not promoted by DKP and I was not sure he could win 9 or 10 rounds to squeek out a decision against a DKP cash cow. And I thought it was a distance bout because Frankie was not going to get that guy out of there and I thought chavez would not land enough clean shots to derail Randall.

So I played the over.

I was not totally surprised when Randall dropped him. Some folks were. But precision puching and accuracy from boxer types has a way of becoming more effective as the bout goes on.

Styles. And tools. If a guy was going to beat chavez, he had to have tools and not give him a silver platter.

Lots of folks were still picking Julio when he fought Kostya. I hought that was another guy with a bad style. far better to fight the MA Gonzalez types that stood still and got hit easily.

Who else was picking the favorite Chavez against Tszyu?

 

I was actually thinking of this fight last night! It would be a BRUTAL WAR!

 

I'm surprised by the answers. I'm going with Pryor, who was a natural talent and could do it all. He was a bit open, but he's faster than Julio and I think would win by decision.

 

I think Chavez was the greater natural talent. Much of what he did was unteachable. He just had a great instinct for the game, incredible reflexes, anticipation and sense of space to go along with top flight punching power. He was smart enough not to overcommit but his shots destroyed guys over the rounds.

 

I like Pryor in this, I particularly like Zadfrak's take on things.

Good thread and quality responses...threads like this are what ESB Classic is all about imo...

 

I have watched about three fights of Pryor in his prime at 140 and I have watched about 3 of Chavez at 140. I am not comfortable yet in picking a winner. I lean toward Pryor because of his power, chin, stamina, and hunger...but, chavez was the same and he was always calm and precise in a war and much much more durable than any Pryor ever faced.

I still have more homework to do. This a great match and go stuff from all of the posters.

 

You need to go to school on Chavez... Try watching some of his fights before 1990.

Manny Steward, when he got into camp with Julio later in his career, was amazed at what a good boxer Chavez was. He said that he actually learned things from Chavez. Chavez was simply a great boxer, knowing how to find spaces and opening amidst trading, using subtle positioning, blocking and angles, always able to get that hook under his opponent's elbow and rarely getting hit in return. Boxing is not all about stick and move potshotting...

Yeah, Pryor had no quit in his 39 fights... the first half of which were against no hopers. Chavez didn't even lose until 90 fights into his career (also with the requisite no-hopers early on) when he was well on the back nine. Let's not talk about quitting. Pryor essentially quit on his entire career around the age of 30.

 

I love this post...but that whole Aaron Pryor quit on his career is a little out of context. He is a warrior plain and simple.