Yeah, I agree. I love Pryor but I see this as similar to what might have happened to him had he met Sugar Ray Leonard at welterweight. Napoles might have been the best ever fighter to regularly fight at 140 pounds and I'd say he's certainly the best 140 pounder never to get a world title shot. If Pryor attacked Napoles the way he attacked other fighters, he'd probably get knocked out. If he tried to box him, he'd likely get picked apart. It'd be fun to watch while it lasted though.
Gotta go with Pryor points, his workrate would serve him well here with enough of a connection rate to steal rounds. Not completely convinced but that seems more likely than Napoles out hustling and/or hurting him
Enough connection? Napoles defense was awesome, there's a reason he was called mantequilla. Napoles is levels above Arguello.
I know, I'm not disputing any of that, and I agree Napoles was much, much better than Arguello, but I just think the Hawk is too aggressive for Napoles, he'd have to fight the fight of his life to win, and anything more than 95% to make the distance, Pryor was AWESOME, I really do think that his activity rate would outshine his defence and he would connect with Napoles just enough to get the nod. I don't think it'd be a blowout from either fighter
Most everything tells me Napoles from a technical standpoint. My only reservation is that Napoles might be thrown off his game by Pryor's aggression and workrate.
It's definitely a possibility. Still, I don't think Pryor ever met anyone like Napoles so I think his best chance would be to get him out of there early. If Mantequilla could survive that initial onslaught, though, I think his all-round game would be too good for Pryor.
Researching Napoles' losses at LW & JrWW showed cuts to be the issue. Pryor would have jump his case early and go for a TKO cut type stoppage. Otherwise, Napoles wins going away like in the Curtis Cokes 1 fight.
True - getting cut was his only real in-ring weakness as far as I can see. Out of the ring, his focus and dedication seemed a bit variable due to the drinking but maybe that was only a problem at WW. And like all truly great fighters, he was great in rematches - every fighter he lost to whom he got a rematch against he beat - Tony Perez, Alfredo Urbina (twice), LC Morgan and Billy Backus - and did it conclusively too. So if he met Pryor more than once and had the misfortune of losing to him on cuts in the first fight, his focus and dedication wouldn't be in question for a rematch - he seemed to turn into a killer when he had those, so I think Pryor would be in big trouble.
