@Saintpat And 1 more thing to add about that Pryor Johnson start. It was Johnson who came out running at Pryor at the opening bell, which may have prompted Pryor to give him that kind of footwork and movement. He knew right then and there that Johnson wanted to brawl right away, after that face off. Do you think Pryor's tactics were pre-planned or was that entire opening sequence simply a split-second reaction to Johnson coming out running towards him after the opening bell rang?
It’s hard to say. He was like 15 minutes late coming out of his dressing room so who knows what issues there may have been backstage … if you’ve been around boxing enough you’ve seen guys have breakdowns in the locker room before going out to the ring or other odd behavior (“I’m not going out until somebody finds my lucky socks” type stuff). Or maybe he was playing mind games. I think the speculation from one of the commentators (was it Clancy) might have been right — that Pryor was trying to warm himself up, maybe the delay had him coming to the ring ‘cold’ or something and he needed to get his heart racing and blood pumping. Whatever the case, it made for a very bizarre opening round. BTW, while I don’t remember him doing the ‘go for a quick run’ at the start of the fight like Pryor did here, go watch practically any Sugar Ray Leonard fight and you’ll find he almost never threw a punch in the first minute or 90 seconds of the first round. He said he liked to acclimate himself and see what his opponent had … gauge his speed/power/reach/size by playing defense at the start — and it also creates a certain amount of tension. You can imagine the opponent starting to think ‘when is he going to throw a punch, what is he setting me up for, is something wrong with this guy?’ In Ray’s case I don’t think it was mind games so much as just being the type who wants to sit in the new car and adjust his seat and the rear view mirror and side mirrors and maybe the steering wheel, find something on the radio station, figure out the air conditioner system … then put it in gear and take it for a ride. Getting used to the furniture so to speak.
Benn vs McClelland Benn was hit with some powerful blows right ouf the gate and within the first minute finds himself down on outside of the ring. He did in fact collect himself and eventually went on to win the fight. One of my top 10 fights for sure. This content is protected
Well said. And how prophetic of SRL on commentary to say "you might see an early knockdown" then a split second later, boom, down goes Pryor lol.
This one started but then it didn’t. Per comments on YT, this incident related to a pay dispute - the fighter in question was orig. told the fight wasn’t being televised. When he learned that it was being televised, they refused to adjust the orig. contract and pay more money than the fighter agreed to when he was told there would be no telecast. Ironically, given the other guys rep as a puncher, before the fight the commentator advised viewers “not to blink”. This content is protected
I could never forget the Anthony Hembrick v Booker T. Word bout. The pre-fight antics with the Hembrick's corner synchronized dance routines being as much of this fight as the fight itself. And this fight was explosive.