As im only 24 i didnt capture Pryor in his heyday, ive looked at some of his fights on youtube and he is exciting. But, when i looked at the quality of his opposition apart from Cervantes and Arguello i thought his record is fairly tame by great fighter standards. Could somebody explain why? was it because he was to good for his own good or his own self destruction?
He was a great fighter but he was a "high risk low reward" fighter. No one really wanted to fight him. He had very good hand speed, great power, good foot movement. Head To Head aginst most great 140 pounders he's a nightmare. Never got the chance to prove if he was overrated or not.
Pryor was one of the best ever at 140 tho I dont think he beats Ray Leonard at 147, some do think this, thats their opinion.
Agreed. People rate him highly based largely on how exciting and "feared" he was, but when you actually look at his legacy, it has more holes than swiss cheese.
H2H (at 140) his skills cannot be denied. Shame his resume doesn't do his justice, but I'm one of the few that actually believe that Leonard ducked Pryor.
Everyone knows that Pryor is good, unfortunately there will always be a question of just how good he was due in part to his resume, and in part to the fact that his greatest victory (the first bout with Arguello) is marred by controversy. Pryor was slightly unlucky in a lot of ways, including being in the wrong weight division. All the big action at the time was at Welterweight, with Leonard and Hearns there and Duran skipping past 140 to move to 147. Still, I think Pryor would have had severe trouble dealing with any of them, (he probably would have done best against Leonard but even that would have been a tall order) and Hearns in particular might have inflicted a devastating loss on Pryor. (Pryor beat Hearns as an amateur, however at the time Hearns hadn't discovered his power and fought as a pure boxer. Put Pryor in against the Hearns who KO'd 30 of his first 32 opponents at Welter and had those huge advantage in size and reach along with Hearns' tremendous speed, and you have the makings of a brutal beating, in my opinion).
great fighter, with good power, speed and a good chin. such a shame, that with his relentless style and pressure, the big names never wanted to fight him.
