Aaron Pryor vs. Roberto Duran @Welterweight, 1980

Duran by wide UD or late TKO via ref stoppage with Pryor still wanting to go at it.

 

Whoever, is taking the better drugs, will win!

 

Hard to say because Pryor never did anything at welter that I’m aware of. His division was junior welter and he was one of the very best at it

 

This.

 

Duran uses every trick in his epic novel to dupe, frustrate, and constantly swat Pryor. By the end of the 4th Pryor is mercifully stopped, overwhelmed is a tame word for it.

 

Sitting atop the consensus opinion already formed - Duran by UD or late round stoppage.

Duran too strong, powerful and busy. Good fight to watch though. Two top tier, proud competitors.

 

I love Pryor legend. Leonard ducked him. Duran ducked him. Bull****. He struggled like hell with a former Featherweight. Take Panama Lewis out of his corner and the Hawk become a Pigeon.

 

Duran would kayo Pryor around the 5th round, possibly 3rd. Welterweight would be Aaron's weakness.

 

I would pick Duran at any weight to beat Pryor. Especially if Pryor doesn't have his special water bottle.

 

Don't agree with you. Pryor gets a lot of shade because of the Lewis incident. But theirs 2 fights between Pryor and Arguello. Pryor beat him easier the 2nd time WITHOUT Lewis. Some will say "Arguello was finished after the 1st fight" but the same can be said about Pryor after being found roaming the streets of " Overtown" in a crack induced haze after the 1st fight. He wasn't the same either.
Pryor was an exceptional talent. And the best Jr.welter in history in my opinion. He was capable of a physicality and skill level not seen in many fighters.
Would he have beaten Duran? No. But Duran also was special.
Would Pryor had been successful at welterweight? Doubtful, his height , reach and frame suggest to me he would'nt have been successful against the big , physically talented, and skilled welterweights of that era.
But Pryor was one of the best fighters of the era, and in history. He put it all together one night in the old Orange Bowl ,against the legendary Arguello. Let him have that . Because
No one has PROVEN anything nefarious was in the " magic bottle " that night. Just speculation.
No drug ingested through the digestive system would've worked in the 3 minutes left in that fight.
The man is gone now, let's give him the benefit of doubt that you'd give a fighter you like....

 

I agree with your assessment of Duran-Pryor, but the matter of him being a better lightweight seems, to me, to be a myth.

The narrative when he beat Cervantes was that he was a lightweight who couldn’t get a title shot so he moved up to 140.

But per boxrec at least, he only made 135 one time in his entire career (although some of his early fights don’t have weights). He did fight at 136 (common non-title practice of weight division limit + one pound) a few times, but most of his fights he’s heavier than 136 and clearly a bona fide junior welterweight.

Aaron’s best pre-title win was probably over Peppermint Frazier, where Pryor weighed 136 and Frazier 139 … but the Peppermint hadn’t made lightweight in like eight years at that point.

His other notable win before Cervantes was over Al Ford, a longtime Canadian lightweight … but Ford had been trafficking more in the 140-pound range than 135 for a couple of years (no weighs recorded for his bout on boxrec). And Ford had lost four of his previous six and was well on his way to journeyman status by this point.

So I don’t see where Pryor had done anything to earn a title shot at lightweight given (a) his lack of quality wins over lightweights and (b) his lack of even fighting at lightweight with any frequency.

 

Duran’s more calculated and crafty aggression will beat the more wild and reckless aggression of Pryor. Duran by stoppage in an incredible fight.

 

Going off memory, but boxrec can be inaccurate too.
Seems I remember prior to his championship shot at
Jr.welterweight
he was trying to get a shot at lightweight, but failed
so he started campaigning at Jr.welt. Where of
course he made his name.
But as I wrote, going off memory from almost 50
yrs ago. I could be wrong.

 

I believed it at the time because that’s what they said. And yeah boxrec can be wrong, but would they have ALL his weights wrong? Seems unlikely.

Bottom line, for a guy who was ‘gunning for a lightweight title shot’ his ledger is completely devoid of significant fights at lightweight. What lightweight contender did he knock off?

Now it could be semantics — maybe they wanted to make fights against some top lightweights but couldn’t get those fights made so went after 140-pounders.

But I don’t think it’s disputable that he did nothing in his entire career that would warrant a shot at a 135-pound championship.

 

No, neither Duran nor Leonard ducked Pryor it was Pryor's team who turned down an offers from Duran and Leonard twice. I can't believe that no here called you on that BS.