Pryor was a great 140lber, maybe the best ever but he gets a very easy ride on boxing forums. He had a short prime, outside of Cervantes and Arguello his level of opposition wasn't the greatest and yet some people pick him over Leonard at 147. Picking a guy would might have gone on to great things at 140 over a guy who actually achieved great things at 147? Its just a complete myth that doesn't really stand up to examination, either from the fighters actions or the timeframe of their respective careers.
Duran was a quitter. That is a Fact. Did Pryor ever quit? Nope. Pryor would have frustrated the hell out of Duran.
I'm not wasting my time with a troll such as yourself. The only reason you're not as highly regarded a troll as guys like Bigtime9 and Fitzgeraldz is because you don't post that often. Please, keep it that way.
Duran and Pryor would always be a tossup to me. Would he make Duran quit, no, is he capable of beating him to a bloody pulp, sure he is, he's aaron ****in pryor.
Pryor ranks high all-time @ 140 and is tough to pick against in mythical head-to-head matchups. On all-time rankings, he gets overrated quite frequently though.
Do you realize that an aging and ring worn super featherweight was favored by most fans to beat Pryor??? Before the first Arguello fight Aaron Pryor was a little known guy fighting in a division very few people cared about. There was absolutely no reason for SRL to pay any attention to him.
SRL had very good management. Very wise decision not to fight Pryor. Pryor had too much agression and fire power for anyone at 140. And to top it off -- he had very little respect for his opponent and all the confidence in himself.
Wow, aren't guys shitting on Gamboa for just those qualities? Leonard was not a 140 pounder. He was one of the highest marketed 147 pounders of all time, with big fights between proven fighters lined up from Hearns to Benitez to Duran. He's going to take a fight with a relatively unproven(this is prior to fighting Arguello, who he was actually the underdog against) 140 pounder because the guy decides to call him out in public? The press took the fight about as seriously as Leonard did at the time. Not at all. It wasn't until after beating the faded Arguello that Pryor's exposure came full force, and not until after that that fans started to make these accusations that Leonard ducked him upon seeing the film of the conference. You, like them, don't seem to understand the circumstances at the time.
Remember when Leonard destroyed smaller fighter Davey Boy Green? Green shouldn't have been fighting Leonard period, but Leonard gave him no mercy in nearly beheading him in the fourth. You point out several excuses for Arguello- firstly, the bottle contained orange juice, Pryor's preference (indeed not legal, but OJ isn't going to make much of a difference in a boxing match, seriously). Secondly, yes, Arguello did move up- from Lightweight to Super-Lightweight. Not a big step up, and Arguello and his fans thought he could carry the weight, considering he had already won titles in three different weight classes (?). Most recently, before Pryor, he had KO'ed Mancini and decisioned Jim Watt. He looked good, but Pryor simply kept punching. Pryor had just about too much of everything for Arguello, weight and orange juice or not (the rematch also dispelled any belief in the entire OJ controversy, as Pryor stopped Arguello even quicker).
Im a huge Tszyu fan as every knows on this board and this is high i rate Pryor at 140 all time. 140 All Time List 1. Aaron Pryor 2. Kostya Tszyu 3. Julio C Chavez There my top three.
But Butch Lewis on Legendary Nights implied that Leonard was scared, so it must've been true. After all, forget about the fact that Leonard faced Benitez, Duran twice, Hearns, and Kalule @ 154 within a two year period. And Hagler !@ 160 when SRL was coming out of a 3 year retirement. Legendary Nights implied that Leonard was scared, so it must've been that Leonard would've lost to Pryor @ 147. Big name fighters like Leonard (and DLH and Tyson) never get called out, so whenever someone calls them out for a fight, they have to figh them, no matter what weight class they are.
Even if you are generous to Pryor, a fight with Leonard was only ever realistic after he beat Arguello for the first time in 1982 and Leonard was retired by then. Before that Pryor only had Cervantes and few rountine defences at 140 on his record while Leonard was fighting Benitiez, Duran, Hearns and winning a title at 154. Why would Leonard put any of those fights on hold to fight relatively unknown 140 champ? If Pryor was serious about fighting Leonard he should have moved up 147 and proved it instead of just calling out Leonard because he was a big pay day.
