51 years ago today: James Hilmer "Motor City Cobra #1" Kenty vs. Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, Sr. II

This content is protected

They fought a total of five times in the amateurs. Pryor was victorious the first, third, fourth and fifth. Just this once, however, Kenty was able to get the better of him.

Kenty would later be among the first scions of a young Emanuel Steward in his storied tenure as head of Kronk Gym - paired initially with a young Thomas Hearns and the duo billed as the "Motor City Cobras", with Kenty being Steward's first charge to capture a world title.

(Hearns himself went 0-1 against Pryor in their lone amateur encounter)

The most interesting time frame to imagine them meeting on a sixth occasion, but now professionally, would be the summer/fall of 1980. This is when Kenty kayoed Ernesto España in their rematch (in September) and Pryor got off the canvas to knock out Antonio Cervantes (in August). You would still have to install the Hawk as the conservative favorite, but TMCC did show that, at least on a single occasion six years prior, under a different rule set, he was able to beat his rival. Once in five attempts, but hey.

High-skill and high-velocity match. Rare to find something this enjoyable in the amateurs outside the world championships and Olympics.

 

Happy to be corrected!

3 for 11 means he had a better winning percentage of 27% than I thought (20%). Still think it's a hard ask for Kenty to get a W in the pros, however.