Arguello V Pryor - Tell me about this fight

Arguello (man in my avatar) was the former Featherweight, Jr.Lightweight, and Lightweight champion of the world. He never lost those titles but vacated them, and he was challenging Pryor to become the first 4-division champion in history. He was at the end of his career, after something like 80 fights and 14 years into his career.

Pryor was the undefeated Jr.Welterweight champion who took the crown from an old Antonio Cervantes, and had made 5 defenses of this title, all by knockout. He had stopped all but 2 of his opponents I believe. Pryor's division was pretty weak at the time, and he was looking for big names, most noteably Ray Leonard whom he called out on a few occasions. So Arguello was his highest profile opponent. I believe Alexis was a 2-1 favorite to win.

It was an awesome fight, great action throughout. Both men landed a lot of bombs, and by the 12th round it was very close. I can't really say what happened with the "black bottle" in the corner, but there is a big controversy around it as only water is allowed in the corner and Pryor's trainer said "the one that I mixed," then Pryor came out apparently more energized.

In the 14th round Pryor backed Arguello up into the ropes and unloaded a savage combination before Arguello sunk to the canvas and the fight was stopped.

They had a rematch, and Pryor stopped Arguello in the 10th. Both retired after that fight, but both made comebacks later on.

One of the best fights I've ever seen.

 

I think the cobra has just about covered it... saved me A LOT of typing.

Ps. Their 2nd fight hardly ever gets mentioned as an all time great fight because it was more 1 sided than the 1st fight but you should check it out, its 1 of the best ever aswell IMO.

 

Their 2nd fight was very good as well. Not on the level of their first IMO, but Alexis was still able to land some nice shots throughout. He was pretty much done by then though, somewhat like the 3rd fight between Pacquiao and Morales if you've seen that one. Morales was clearly done but still putting up a fight until he realized it wasn't going to happen and he was dropped for the 3rd time and sat on the canvas until he was counted out, Arguello did the same.

If you want to learn more about the background, HBO did a show on their first fight on their Legendary Nights series that is quite good. It should be on youtube.

 

Mate, pretty sure both bouts are on youtube. Well worth the time.

 

I was a big Arguello fan. My whole family was. During the fight we kept thinking, OK, now Arguello gets him. There were a couple times Arguello hit him that it looked like Pryor's head just might fly off. Arguello always came on and got guys out of there later in the fight. But Pryor kept coming back. The black bottle thing certainly lends a lot of intrigue to the fight. I tend to think that Pryor was just a little bit better at 140 than Arguello, but the bottle controversy taints the win a little. You can say that Pryor beat him in the rematch without any bottles, but the damage to Arguello had already been done. Personally, I hold Panama Lewis exclusively accountable for the black bottle and just feel like Pryor won the fight.

 

Pryor was never the same after the 2nd Arguello bout. The fast life and his demons got to him. He attempted an comeback and looked like a shell of his self, getting KO'd by Bobby Joe Young. Arguello came back as well, KOing Billy Costello.

 

Arguello and Pryor are the two guys in my avatar. I don't have much to add to what Cobra & co have already set, except track the 1st fight down as soon as you possibly can, and enjoy the thrilling pleasure of watching two masters at their bloody, brutal best!

 

Just to let you know. Panama Lewis to this today maintains that all was in the bottle was a mixture of mineral water or some sorts and tap water if I'm correct. Pryor did have insane stamina though.

 

That scumbags word is worth less than nothing.

Not saying there was anything in the bottle, it's all guesswork.

 

Very true.

He doesn't appear to show any remorse for the Resto-Collins situation either. Instead he goes on about how nobody takes into consideration his feelings because his father apparently died prior to the fight. :roll:

 

Plus the key drama to the fight was. Arguello had the deserved reputation of coming on strong in the late rounds. Pryor started like a whirlwind, then slowly Arguello turned the momentum his way and started landing hard shots. One in particullar was a crunching right hand in the 12th or 13th round, which landed flush on Pryor's face. Then Pryor At the start of the 14th round seemed to come out of nowhere to back up Arguello and catch him with thunderous blows! The last of which a brutal right hand broke Arguello's nose. A great fight.

 

A couple of interesting side notes: Argeullo could have went after Mamby and captured his 4th world title, but said he could not consider himself the real champ unless he beat Pryor. Everybody besides Pryor who faced Arguello at 140 got sparked, including Vilomar Fernandez who Arguello lost to in his first fight at 135.

If you look up the word "champion" in most dictionarys all they have is a picture of El Flaco Explosivo! Well --- not really -- but he certainly defined the word many times over in his career.

There is no shortage of great fights on Arguello's resume, but here are a couple that I wish we could have seen:

Alexis Arguello vs Danny "Little Red" Lopez at 126

Arguello/Duran at 135.