I believe Aaron Pryor is very underrated largely due to the lack of exposure he got in his relatively short career, with the exception of the Arguello fight. People also seem to say that Pryor only won that fight by cheating but he KO'd Alexis in the rematch so that can't have been the only reason. However Pryor's natural weight was 140 and even pushing up towards 147 had a fight with Leonard materialized. To make lightweight would be an extreme effort. Roberto Duran simply put is the greatest lightweight I have ever seen. People talk about the likes of Willy Pep but I never saw him. I never saw a fighter who I thought at lightweight would beat Duran. He was an animal and had underrated boxing skills as well. His fights with DeJesus were epic and to me he beats anyone at lightweight from any era. As you have probably guessed I am picking Duran here. I think it would be a good fight but Pryor has come down a lot in weight to fight a legend and I think Duran wears him down and then stops him.
Biggest difference would be Duran's defense, it was significantly better than Pyror's, so Pryor would be getting hit a lot more.
Pretty valid .. it would have been one hell of a fight thought .. I simply think the best Duran was simply better even though Aaron was exceptional .. one terrific match up.
Great fight but Duran wins. I don't think anyone under welterweight can afford to trade with Duran at will, while lacking defensively as Pryor did.
Aaron had the uncanny ability to open up completely and not be totally open. His shucking, jiving, herky-jerky awkward in and out off-rythm movement could befuddle opponents -- they were not used to an opponent like this, because opening up against a world-ranker in this way is usually foolhardy. Duran was brilliant at close range. All he has to do is take a step forward, using his defensive prowess to ride the hooks, and he is in a zone where he knows how to pick his shots and protect himself. Even at midrange he is no slouch, able to shoot a variety of shots to the midriff, and even Pryor can't move his lower body to where Duran can't find it. Duran rides this storm like no other, landing thudding shots, until Pryor opts to either go for broke or take a step back and box a bit. Either way, Aaron never wins this.