What was in Pryors water bottle?

Wait a minute, what?

 

You've not heard? All fighters that suffer knockdowns have questionable chins...even if they then jump back up, laughing, and then immediately kick the ever loving **** out of their opponent.

 

like some said, probably just water with sugar. Nothing big.

 

I don't think the outcome of the fight was a result of what was or was not in that bottle. Did Pryor have the bottle in the second fight?
I think it was a case of a very good boxer in his prime beating an exelent boxer on his way down.

 

Yes I am referring to that, Pryor obviously wasn't gassed but he wasn't throwing with the same authority as before while Arguello was coming on a little stronger and was finding his mark more often. The right hand Pryor ate in the 13th had to have had some effect, that shot would've fell 147 lbers. This is a moot point in any case; no fight is ever a forgone conclusion in boxing (it is the theater of the unexpected after all) and if there was something in that bottle to give Pryor an added boost and end things early (which is highly likely considering Lewis's reputation) then I call bull****. If Pryor was on his way to such an assured victory why the **** the need for the bottle then? I can't believe people are trying to defend or write off such blatant cheating, unless of course you are of the opinion that there was nothing in the bottle at all...

 

I just don't understand what could've been in the bottle to give him an added boost in that small time frame.

Either way, I disagree that Pryor was slowing and/or Arguello was coming on. The entire fight pretty much played out the same way. There was no real change in those later rounds. Arguello landed some huge shots throughout the bout, but they were much fewer and further between than Pryor's. If that big right hand had such an effect, it would've shown. It didn't. In the end, Pryor was just a step too far at that weight for Arguello.

 

There's probably no answer anyone can give without some sort of angle to it really, as in truth it's specualtion of the highest order.

But through watching fights of Pryor both before this fight, and in Arguello II, I don't think he performed at a level that really caused much suspicion. The legendary nights episode will have you believe he was gassed and the bottle gave him some special energy, but his pace was frenetic throughout the fight and in pretty much every fight he had.

As stated at the start it's inconclusive really, but Pryor was winning and would have won without anything in there IMO.

 

the fairer question is, was Pryor using while in his fighting years and while 'actually' fighting... whatever the substance?

 

I heard JMM giggle when someone asked that question

 

Lewis was referring to the bottle he mixed as early as round 3, and there are fast acting bronchodilators that exist for asthma patients in case of emergencies. Considering Luis Resto (who admitted to the far more sinister Collins incident) stated there was asthma pills in the water, I find it highly plausible.

 

Mead...:drink

 

Bottom line is that I believe that the regulations allowed for the use of water only. Hence, if Lewis had a bottle with a mixture of anything else, regardless of its impact, he was cheating. Clearly, he was asking for a different bottle, the one that he mixed. Of course, right there, you know he has done something illegal. Whether it was amphetamines or asthma medication does not matter. The fact is that they were cheating. That was not fair to Arguello, his health, the gamblers who had wagered on what should have been a fair contest, or the spectators who wanted to see the best man win based on pure merit. I think the bout should have been ruled a no contest and Lewis and Pryor suspended. You don't know what impact that brutal KO had on Arguello after that. And that KO was devastating. Guy was lying there like he was dead.

Why didn't they immediately seize the bottles and test their contents? Why didn't HBO alert the commission about what they had heard? Did they? Does anyone know what happened?

As much as I am a fan of Pryor, and he really was so much fun to watch, that incident puts a serious damper on his legacy, because that was the biggest fight of his career, and oftentimes when fighters face their toughest fight, weaknesses in their character are revealed. Fear has a way of causing some trainers and fighters to do things they should not be doing. If you don't have the guts or confidence to win without cheating, then maybe you aren't really a great fighter after all. Fighters' true character and nature are truly revealed when the going gets rough and/or they are entering the ring with a guy who can take it and fight back.

 

I don't think about the bottle much but what else could there have been? Pryor admitted to Manny Steward, who trained him for the rematch, that they had done things illegally for the first fight. Steroids? Plastered wraps? Everything goes when it comes to Panama Lewis and his fighters.

 

You should know more than most, that this sort of thing has always happened in boxing. It is not right, but it has been the norm for virtually the entire history of the sport.

Pryor does not deserve to be singled out and punished, that would just be unfair.