Any thoughts on this match up between 2 opposite styles? Offensive whirlwind against the boxing wizard at 140. From the little footage that we've seen of Perkins he looks like a great slick technician who can give Pryor a tough fight.
Perkins could make Pryor look foolish there with the feintings. Baiting Pyor to come and then hit him... but guys like Perkins can be sometimes overwhelmed if they don´t put volume in their work, they can lose earilier rounds just by having poor workrate.
Aaron Pryor at his best was a two-fisted whirlwind. A dynamic, relentless ,offensive power house, that simply gave no choice to his opponents but to fight or be overwhelmed. And he overwhelmed them anyway. In order to at the least slow Pryor down, and make him a little less kamikaze, the opponent had to be able to hurt him a little, like Dujaun Johnson, Cervantes, and Arguello did, but even with their firepower they only slowed his attack momentarily. There's no win in Perkins long career that suggest he'd be able to do that. That's like putting chum in the water for the shark. Perkins was very skilled. But Pryor simply overwhelms him. Pryor cut distance better than any Jr. welter in history, even better than Julio Chavez There's nothing Perkins could do to dissuade Pryor and keep him honest. Perkins gets overwhelmed by Pryor, and would get stopped. Earlier than most would imagine.....
The other thing Pryor did was to slide over when he had a guy on the ropes. Best I ever saw at it. He'd be peppering a guy at 1 o'clock and slide over--while punching--and be at 11 o'clock. Fantastic. Never saw anyone else pull that off so seamless. very very hard thing to deal with defnesively.
Some of his combinations looked like he was painting on a personal canvas. The only guys that I've seen stir up his opponents similarly was Thomas Hearns.
Yes , his angles of attack were almost Pernell Whitaker level. But Whitaker didn't carry Pryor's power.
Eddie Perkins was a real technician in the ring. I´ve never seen a fighter win so many decisions away from home. Had a real bag of tricks in his arsenal which apart from a faded Cervantes Pryor has never faced. I think he might frustrate Pryor in the early rounds with his counter-punching but Aaron was impossible to keep off. Pryor by 10th round ko
Eddie Perkins was a real road warrior. He actually fought in 24 countries, scoring 18 wins in the opponent's backyard. His losses to Nicolino Locche and Jose Napoles both took place in their hometown and according to Perkins himself he felt he was robbed in those fights. I only wish there was more details on how those fights went and fight footage. In a way he sort of reminds me of Saoul Mamby and Buddy McGirt.
Yes he does. While I don't believe he beats a focused version of Duran at any weight, or the best of the best welterweights of that era . There's not many natural lightweights /Jr.welters that beat him best night vs best night. Pryor gets quite a bit of bad press because of the "magic bottle ' theories so many hold on too. Without one bit of real proof of what was in the drink, and they completely omit the fact of nothing taken orally would've worked in the time frame left in that fight. Even if he drank pure cocaine, it wouldn't have done anything with in the less than 3 minutes that was left in that fight. He simply would've died after it. Some hold on to the stories told by Louis Resto , as if he was some pillar of integrity, but his story fits what they want to believe. So some push his and that agenda. While I wouldn't deny there was something in the drink, but what if it was only Peppermint snapps / Perrier water as Lewis said it was? Nothing nefarious? They also conveniently omit there was a 2nd fight. Or the excuse is Arguello wasn't the same in the 2nd fight, but guess what, neither was Pryor, especially after almost a year spent roaming the streets of Miami in a crack cocaine induced haze.. While I have no problem with anyone's opinion that Arguello was a greater fighter overall, and I agree with that. Pryor was the better Jr. welterweight. Give him his due.......
Eddie Perkins was stopped only once, pre-prime, so as impressive as Pryor was, I don't see him getting stopped. Based on reports, he arguably should have won all three fights against another all time 140lb fighter in Dulio Loi (he definitely won the second without controversy). Plus, as already noted, even when he was well past his prime he was beating larger, stronger welterweights in their backyard. This isn't someone who's getting blown out by anyone on a top 140lb list. That said, I could see Pryor outworking him to win a close decision, but it's a fight that I think resembles Pryor-Hinton than just about any of his other defenses.
