Do you think Arguello could beat the best Pryor in a 12 round fight? Why was their rematch so one sided? And if Arguello had beaten Pryor in their first fight, assuming it was a 12 rounder, where would you rank Arguello on an all time p4p list?
No i don't. If one is a believer that the controversial black bottle helped, then they could certainly argue yes to this. The rematch was so one sided because the first fight took a lot out of Arguello, who was already at a very deep and late career stage. Arguello had 77 fights under his belt leading into this. He'd been a pro for 14 years. He started around bantamweight and was a long long way up in the weights. He'd fought myriads of top fighters and had many wars. He gave everything that night, and don't forget, Alexis was unconscious for 2-3 minutes. Add all of this up and Arguello was never going to come out of very well. He actually fought well enough to beat many a fine man that night. Some of the punches Pryor soaked up were insane. A great many people would have succumbed. Again, there's a lot going on here with the black bottle as well. Quite a few feel very strongly both ways.
He was actually conscious but trying to block out everything around him. https://vault.si.com/vault/1985/10/21/adrift-sea-choices ^This was a very good article. It's worth the read.
do you think if the first fight was scheduled for 12, Pryor might have lost, black bottle or no black bottle? Seems to me that Arguello was strong enough to keep Pryor away for 12 rounds and perhaps not for 15.
Just who else takes that perfect right hand Alexis had been setting up for like 8 rounds? Who set up their big perfect punch better than Arguello? And you also knew that sometime during that fight it was going to land clean on that Pryor defense and wide open style. Great matchup of 180 degree different styles. Picture perfect and right on the button. To me, it is right there with Ali getting up from the round 15 Frazier left hook. And Monzon getting up after getting hit on the button by Valdez when they both threw big right hands. Beat to the punch and got up like that showing minimal effects. To me, the biggest 3 punch absorptions I've seen in my life.