Aaron almost unbeatable at JWW from the post above is one of the absolute funniest things I've ever read in my life, Pryor was down 7 x at least by bums and once by an old Cervantes at the end, he could not take punch, he only fought 2 guys, Cervantes at the end and Arguello, who's best was JLW and then he lost something moving up to LW and JWW well he was not a natural there, and over 30 and slow and robotic with his style, perfect for a guy like pryor on PCP, Amphetamines and everything else. but that's it, 2 good fighters, the other 35 plus were bums. Not one of the others besides maybe D. Johnson even had decent power, WHY? Pryor couldnt take a big punch and his people knew it. Chavez literally destroys him, since Chavez is a bit of a slow starter, he takes a lot of punches from pryor, but in similar style to Taylor he breaks Aaron down, round by round until he lands a solid head punch or 2 and pryor never wakes up. Taylor could take 10x the punishment and punches Pryor could, heck Aaron, never even unified the JWW title, how do you have him beating Chavez, when he couldnt even fight Mamby to unify, LOL!, He turned down 2 offers from Leonard and 1 from Duran. WOW and you have him beating Chavez. The Coked up cheater even high could not beat Chavez. and without the special mixed bottle and drugs, Arguello would have beat him. He could not even put a dent in Chavez.
Some info & insight on Pryor & why he was not the greatest JWW of All-Time! this one is so long I will have to split it up below over several posts. 1974 National AAU Finalist (132 lbs).Outpointed by Hilmer Kenty 1975 Pan American Games Silver Medalist (132 lbs). Disqualified (low blow) in the second round against Chris Clarke of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 1976 National Golden Gloves Champion (132 lbs). Outpointed Thomas Hearns at this Point in time, Pryor was turning Pro soon, & was a Physically Mature Fighter, Hearns was still a tall skinny kid, that had yet to find the Awesome Power he had as a Pro, he was not ready for Pryor, as a Pro, Hearns does to him what he did to DURAN! 1976 United States Olympic Trials Finalist (132 lbs). Outpointed by Howard Davis Jr. of Glen Cove, New York. 1976 United States Olympic Box-Offs: Outpointed by Howard Davis Jr. of Glen Cove, New York. Pryor was an alternate at 132 lbs for the U.S. Olympic tea In Dec 1980, Pryor rejected an offer of $500,000 to fight Sugar Ray Leonard for the WBC WW Title he wanted more money. When it was increased to $750,000, he rejected it. Considering Duran & Pryor Both were offered $750,000 each to fight at Madison Square Gardens in 1981, many claim the Leonard offer was cheap, but it clearly was not. Below is a web link to a newspaper article, being from Cincinnati, Ohio myself, many articles were written about it back then locally, the buzz at the time around town was, that Pryor was being mishandled by many in his huge entourage & that for their own reasons, were preventing him from taking these big fights.
Part 2: Although not Champ at the time, he got $50,000 for fighting Cervantes for the Title. Goto this Web Link for the News ARticle - https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=G6EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1792,5396168&hl=en Buddy Larosa to Aaron Pryor, "Aaron, what are you doing?" "I've got a contract for you to fight Roberto Duran for $750,000." Madison Square Garden in April 1981. John Condon, President of Madison Square Garden Boxing, said that the Garden had offered Duran $750,000 to fight Aaron Pryor of Cincinnati there in early April. "No, I don't want to fight him. My new attorney told me not to sign anything until you and I work out a new contract." So much for the firing of LaRosa. By the time they worked out a new agreement, the chance to fight Duran—and the $750,000 payday—was gone. The new contract covered 6 yrs; LaRosa's share was cut to 1/3 & he no longer had any ancillary rights. Expenses were to come off the top. "The ink wasn't even dry on the damn contract," says LaRosa, "when I found out Aaron had signed a 1-yr promotional contract with King, who was going to give him a $100,000 bonus. Then King sent me the contract to sign. I told Aaron it was a mistake, but if that was what he wanted, then I'd sign. "Aaron said, 'But King is going to get me a Duran fight, a Mamby fight because he's got Duran & Mamby.' Link to a New York Times Newspaper article about the Duran-Pryor Fight & offers made - http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/30/sports/garden-offers-bout-to-duran.html He signed to fight WBC Super LW Champ, Mamby in a bout for $1 mil. The bout was for 2/7/1981. the fight fell apart when the promoter, Harold Smith, disappeared amid allegations that he was involved in a $21.3 mil fraud against Wells Fargo. Smith, whose real name was Ross Fields, was later sentenced to ten years in prison after he was convicted of 29 counts of fraud and embezzlement. In October 1983, Pryor said he would not defend the WBA Jr WW Title against Johnny Bumphus, the No. #1 contender, & sent the WBA a letter announcing his retirement. Robert Buechner, his attorney, said, "I think that it's correct to say he would certainly reconsider his decision to retire if there's someone on the scene he thought had the same marketability & fighting ability he has." Officially, Pryor was stripped of the title. LaRosa, founder of LaRosa's Pizzeria/Cincinnati, Ohio was Pryor's manager, but was left out & cut out most of the time, especially after Pryor signed with King, Here are a few insights from me, I spent many days in Pryor's Gym, I lived in Cinci, my entire Life, & worked out at the 2nd Gym, where he moved to downtown, I only missed 1 Pro Fight in person, & saw 40% of his Amateur fights, & many sparring & Training sessions, & talked to him & everyone in his camp on many occasions, & got to see a ton of behind the scenes things, that were said & done, here is my own personal thoughts on Pryor. & then some Reviews of how he would do against some top guys.
First of all, yes he was an amazingly exciting fighter to watch, very entertaining, a non-stop offense, Now as for Defense, well, except for good head bobbing & weaving, his only other defense was an all out offense, he was short, a disadvantage, he had short arms, he was always off balance when throwing most of those 100s of punches, even Leonard worked with him,several times to help with that balance, it did not help as he went right back to his old self, He Did not Possess 1 Punch KO Power, he hit very hard with both hands,that's a big difference, his accumulation of hard shots, set up his knockouts, His Chin, I've read in many posts around the net, people say he had a steel, Chin, that's a Joke, & a comment only made by people that do not know Boxing or Pryor, he had a very, suspect Chin, I can't remember all the guys that put him down, Kameda, Kim, Johnson, young, Cervantes & others, the problem is, none of those guys had 1 PUnch KO Power, nor were they even known as power guys, some of them hit hard, they just did not possess enough skills to keep him down, once they knocked him down, whom in his entire career, did he ever fight as a Pro that was good, Cervantes was finished, but still put him down, in his Prime, he keeps him down, Arguello was no JWW, & well over his best weights, & nearing the end of a great Career, & Pryor & Panama Lewis had to cheat to beat him, or I believe Arguello wins, he definitely wins at LW where they should have fought, Pryor was ranked top 3 at LW at one time, & soon they would have had to give him a Title Shot, but his people ran him as fast as they could to a Depleted & weak JWW Division, the LW Division was loaded at that time and many more good fighters coming into the top 10 soon, Pryor never fought any of them, & never fought anyone with Power, WHY? Because his people & everyone in his whole camp knew, he stood an excellent chance of being knocked out with anyone with Power, they avoided every last one of them, he also managed to never fight Saoul Mamby who was ranked #1 at JWW during much of Pryor's reign, he had no power, but was a Solid Boxer, I think they avoided him, he would not fight an up an coming Johnny Bumphus at JWW, he turned down Leonard & Let Duran's offer expire, so Pryor's Camp, maybe not he himself, but his people avoided anyone they could, because they were that worried he would lose against a top guy, they wanted him to get good solid paydays against nobodies & remain Champ, so they could continue to rip him off & Live off him, behind the scenes. Also it was widely known around Pryor's Gym & Camp, & everyone like myself, that he rarely if ever went into a Bout, without being high on Drugs, half the time, his people would Joke at the Gym days after a Win, that he didn't even know or remember whom he fought or if he had even won, he seemed to fight like a Wild Animal & at his best when on Drugs, & they knew it, so they kept him that way, for fights. The only Fight I knew that he was not on something was the Young Fight, next, he had no Ring Generalship, had ZERO fight intelligence, he was uneducated & in fact, just plain Dumb kid, he barely could hold a conversation with u about anything, until after he retired & got clean of his addictions. For all of those Reasons, Pryor Could never beat most of the top Fighters of his time. Here are some that beat him, because they had real power. 1. Duran 2. Gonzalez 3. Hearns 4. O'Grady 5. SRL, 6. Rosario 7. Chavez 8. Tszyu 9. Cervantes in his Prime 10. Arguello at LW, & even JWW if they had not cheated with the Magic bottle of elixir 11. Andy Ganigan had one of the biggest Punches at LW, he is nowhere near the fighter, but he has a shot with that 1 Punch KO Power, 12. Benitez by UD 13. Mancini before the Kim fight would have been an Ohio Boy's War, flip a coin, Mancini had good power an had an excellent shot to win.
He does not have 1 good Fighter on his resume, look at Arguello, he was an all-time great YES, but nearing the end of a great career, & well over his best weight, but still came close to winning it, & Cervantes was at the end, that’s it, Pryor ran from a Packed LW division to a shitty JWW one, he even somehow managed to avoid fighting the #1 contender at JWW for most of his reign in Saoul Mamby, how that happened I don't know, he never fought 1 good fighter in their Prime his entire career. what if he stayed at LW, he was ranked in top 3 there, what if, Pryor vs. Mancini, Blake, Gonzalez, Ganigan, Duran, Arguello, Rosario, Arroyo, Frias, Watt, Davis Jr., O'Grady, Kenty, Dejesus, Espana, Bramble, & he conveniently waited till Benitez left JWW to move up, all those what if fights, he should have & could have won many, if not most, but any of those guys with power could have hit him & ended it, whether he was better or not, Like Ganigan, if Andy hits him & I think he has a solid shot at it, before Pryor takes him out, Andy KO's him, but I still would like to have seen it happen, also he could have eventually Faced Bumphus, Chavez, Warren, McGirt, Paul, & others, he avoided Hearns, Leonard & Duran, also Haley, he never fought anyone. Watch the Leonidas Asprilla Fight, he was a nobody, but fought a pretty decent nearly 10 round fight against Pryor, he hit Aaron, he boxed decent at times, but he was nothing, but still did fairly well, he showed Pryor left himself wide open and could be hit, it's just that he had nothing to take advantage of it with, Imagine, Leonard, who had the whole Package, and 10x better than Asprilla, he would have hit Pryor and won by UD or TKO. How would a Duran vs Pryor Bout have gone & WhY! Duran was one of the top 3 LW fighters of all time, arguably #1, he was an excellent WW, & had success all the way up to MW, he was an awesome Boxer, with excellent defense which he displayed as he moved up, great KO Power at LW, & would have it at JWW, had a Granite Chin, Pryor had a very suspect chin, put down in many fights, he never fought 1 Legit Power guy in or even near their Prime, he had Zero defense, he was always wide open, he just never fought anyone that had the skills to consistantly take advantage of that, but average guys like Montilla & Asprilla showed glimpses of what a great fighter could have done against Pryor, he had terrible balance, something that Sugar Ray Leonard worked with him on several occasions with improving, he did not have 1 Punch KO Power, he hit hard with both hands, that's for sure, he was quick & Fast and a lot of Stamina, but throughout most of his Career he was constantly high on Drugs, in & out of the Ring, stayed out late before most fights, especially the Bigger ones, he was short, he had a terrible Corner to help him during fights, and displayed Zero Ring Generalship, a Great, Skilled Fighter like Duran or Leonard, or any number of others, would have taken full advantage of all of these deficientcies, as a Fighter & after a few rounds of withering his onsalught, they would have eventually taken full Control of the fight, if not Knocking him out at some Point during his initial wide open attack, his lack of 1 Punch KO Power would have allowed Duran to take his punches by using great head movement & Defense, and any he got hit with in the head would have been shrugged off, and he might have got his own big punch in early in the fight to Knock Pryor out, if not then he would have won by TKO or KO somewhere around rounds 9-12, Pryor was put down by, D. Johnson, A. Cervantes, A. Kameda, Kim, B.J. Young and at least 5 others, I don't recall the names of, they just did not possess the overall skill, nor the real Power to keep him down & out to beat him, But Duran would have, by round 10 I say you here the words, DOWN GOES PRYOR< DOWN GOES PRYOR< DURAN DECLARED WINNER BY KNOCKOUT! He has too much overall ability to lose to Pryor. Pryor vs Tszyu Kostya was bigger, stronger, had 1 Punch Ko Power, he withers Pryor's initial attack to KO Him if all those lesser fighters could hit him & put him down, then so could Tsyzu & Pryor does not get up from this one. Gato Gonzalez vs Pryor Gato had 1 Punch KO Power, & was a good solid all-around boxer, & an extremely tough fighter, I believe he also was tough enough to stay with Pryor until he lands the Big one to keep him down.
Pryor vs Wilfred Benitez Pryor being susceptible to power fighters is not threatened by that with Benitez, but his Superior overall Boxing skill & what he proved as he continued to move up, he would win a UD over Pryor, Leonard had more Power & could have a shot at a TKO over Pryor, but he also wins via UD. Arguello vs Pryor if Aaron had stayed at LW & they had fought when Arguello entered the LW division. It goes a lot like their 1st JWW Bout, but without Lewis in the Corner and at LW where Alexis retained more Power & fighting sooner than later than they did, Arguello is much better all the way around at this weight & point in time, this time around, when Arguello lands that huge right that bent his head straight back, Pryor goes down & gets up groggy & Arguello moves in and finishes him. Pryor vs Mancini at LW The Battle of the Ohio Boys. This one is a War, anywhere from 1 to 9 rounds, until 1 of them gets knocked out, Mancini did not have great power but hit hard with both hands & probably had more power than anyone Pryor ever fought except Arguello, so that gives him an excellent shot at beating him, but I think Aaron wins a hard-fought battle in what could have been a great Matchup, either by KO or TKO. They were suppose to fight but once again fate intervened and prevented it. Andy Ganigan vs. Pryor: Aaron wins easily, but if Andy lands even 1 punch, Pryor is toast, but I would think he could keep away from the power shots, but you never know. Jim Watt: how would that one have gone, again we will never know since Pryor ran away from a stacked LW division. Jimmy Paul: I think paul was a good enough boxer and had excellent that he would eventually TKO or KO Pryor, unlike Ganigan, Jimmy had the skill to land on Pryor and he would not be able to handle his power.
Could go either way. The body work of Chavez could pay off late in the fight. Also his heavy hands inside. Pryor had power too. He was quicker and he has those awkward punches from every angle. After the 2nd fight Argeullo told his son that he swore Pryor hit him with both hands at the same time. He was quick. If nailed down I would pick Pryor by decision. The key for him would be to change it up. Not just brawl, not just box but do a little bit of both. He could bang with Julio when he had to. He can box Julio when he had to. Keeping him off balance not being predictable. Aaron was like the Energizer Bunny. I never saw anyone fight quite like him before or after. Duran was similar in his prime a little more skilled as a boxer but not anymore crazy or relentless.
This is a tremendous matchup. Both are full of stamina. Pryor is faster. Pryor hits harder but Chavez had an iron chin. I will go with Pryor by close decision.
Apparently, Rspen has Pryor Derangenent Syndrome and would pick his mother over Pryor in a fight. Lol.
Pryor did not hit harder, LOL!, he hit very hard with both hands, but did not posses 1 PUNCH KO Power, most of his Ko's were by more than 1 punch and that was against 30 plus bums, and his chin was crap, if not for the stimulants and drugs he took, he would not have been knocked out by Arguello and would not have gotten up from cervantes, he avoided anyone else with power his entire career, heck he never even unified the JWW division with MAMBy his entire reign, so how do you pick him to beat Chavez, that's too funny, Chavez eats his punchs as he did taylor's only thing is, Pryor coudlnt take half what Taylor did and would be KNOCKED out cold. stop Giving Pryor too much credit, he was an awesome fighter to watch but never fought anyone and cheated the best he ever fought, turned down duran and leonard then got clean was beaten by a bum named Young.
Apparently genius everyone in cincinnati at the time he was champ loved him as I did, otherswiseI would not have worked out for years at his gyms in town and worked for his crew getting food and drinks and stuff, I'm only posting the truth based on what i saw and heard in the gym 1st hand and during many late nights of sitting around the gym with him and his crew talking, eating and drinking alnight. I saw all but 1 Pro fight from ringside, and 40% or more of his amateur fights, he was absolutely awesome to watch in person, one of the most exiciting fighters ever, but dumber than a rock, but one heckuva of anice guy when not on drugs, but had no chin at all, no balance, no defense, his offense was his defense, he only fought 1 time without being on something and that was against young, so your 100% wrong about what I think of him, loved the guy as a fighter and person, just hated he let the drugs destroy him, but actually without them and the stimulants he probably would have lost sooner and would not have beaten Arguello for sure and maybe not even Cervantes. He is way overrated, I just report it as i saw and heard it in person, not 1 person in his camp/crew/entrourage thought otherwise, they all knew the truth, but we all loved the guy and watching him.
I'm giving you the award for top 10 most useless and worthless post I've seen in these forums, mine would rank up there, but i wrote mine in defense of a worthless comment by you, otherwise i would not have done it, you wrote yours out of lack of knowledge of the situation I wrote about.
Power and speed favor Aaron Pryor at 140 in his prime. This fight would resemble the Chavez-Meldrick Taylor title unification fight on March 17 1990, except there would be no comeback for Chavez in this one. The Hawk suffers a knockdown in round 2, but dominates the whole fight, moving in and out on the ponderous J.C. Chavez to score a unanimous decision win. It would be Hawk Time.
