Greater/Better: Tyson or Pryor?

Snap !

 

This one is too easy, TYSON BY 100 miles or more.
Some info & insight on Pryor & why he was not the greatest JWW of All-Time!
1974 National AAU Finalist (132 lbs).Outpointed by Hilmer Kenty
1975 Pan American Games Silver Medalist (132 lbs). Disqualified (low blow) in the second round against Chris Clarke of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
1976 National Golden Gloves Champion (132 lbs). Outpointed Thomas Hearns at this Point in time, Pryor was turning Pro soon, & was a Physically Mature Fighter, Hearns was still a tall skinny kid, that had yet to find the Awesome Power he had as a Pro, he was not ready for Pryor, as a Pro, Hearns does to him what he did to DURAN!
1976 United States Olympic Trials Finalist (132 lbs). Outpointed by Howard Davis Jr. of Glen Cove, New York.
1976 United States Olympic Box-Offs: Outpointed by Howard Davis Jr. of Glen Cove, New York. Pryor was an alternate at 132 lbs for the U.S. Olympic tea
In Dec 1980, Pryor rejected an offer of $500,000 to fight Sugar Ray Leonard for the WBC WW Title he wanted more money. When it was increased to $750,000, he rejected it. Considering Duran & Pryor Both were offered $750,000 each to fight at Madison Square Gardens in 1981, many claim the Leonard offer was cheap, but it clearly was not. Below is a web link to a newspaper article, being from Cincinnati, Ohio myself, many articles were written about it back then locally, the buzz at the time around town was, that Pryor was being mishandled by many in his huge entourage & that for their own reasons, were preventing him from taking these big fights.
Although not Champ at the time, he got $50,000 for fighting Cervantes for the Title.
Buddy Larosa to Aaron Pryor, "Aaron, what are you doing?" "I've got a contract for you to fight Roberto Duran for $750,000." Madison Square Garden in April 1981.
John Condon, President of Madison Square Garden Boxing, said that the Garden had offered Duran $750,000 to fight Aaron Pryor of Cincinnati there in early April.
"No, I don't want to fight him. My new attorney told me not to sign anything until you and I work out a new contract." So much for the firing of LaRosa.
By the time they worked out a new agreement, the chance to fight Duran—and the $750,000 payday—was gone. The new contract covered 6 yrs; LaRosa's share was cut to 1/3 & he no longer had any ancillary rights. Expenses were to come off the top. "The ink wasn't even dry on the damn contract," says LaRosa, "when I found out Aaron had signed a 1-yr promotional contract with King, who was going to give him a $100,000 bonus. Then King sent me the contract to sign. I told Aaron it was a mistake, but if that was what he wanted, then I'd sign. "Aaron said, 'But King is going to get me a Duran fight, a Mamby fight because he's got Duran & Mamby.'
Link to a New York Times Newspaper article about the Duran-Pryor Fight & offers made - http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/30/sports/garden-offers-bout-to-duran.html
He signed to fight WBC Super LW Champ, Mamby in a bout for $1 mil. The bout was for 2/7/1981. the fight fell apart when the promoter, Harold Smith, disappeared amid allegations that he was involved in a $21.3 mil fraud against Wells Fargo. Smith, whose real name was Ross Fields, was later sentenced to ten years in prison after he was convicted of 29 counts of fraud and embezzlement.
In October 1983, Pryor said he would not defend the WBA Jr WW Title against Johnny Bumphus, the No. #1 contender, & sent the WBA a letter announcing his retirement. Robert Buechner, his attorney, said, "I think that it's correct to say he would certainly reconsider his decision to retire if there's someone on the scene he thought had the same marketability & fighting ability he has." Officially, Pryor was stripped of the title. LaRosa, founder of LaRosa's Pizzeria/Cincinnati, Ohio was Pryor's manager, but was left out & cut out most of the time, especially after Pryor signed with King,
I spent many days in Pryor's Gym, I lived in Cinci, my entire Life, & worked out at the 2nd Gym, where he moved to downtown, I only missed 1 Pro Fight in person, & saw 40% of his Amateur fights, & many sparring & Training sessions, & talked to him & everyone in his camp on many occasions, & got to see a ton of behind the scenes things, that were said & done, here is my own personal thoughts on Pryor. & then some Reviews of how he would do against some top guys.
First of all, yes he was an amazingly exciting fighter to watch, very entertaining, a non-stop offense, Now as for Defense, well, except for good head bobbing & weaving, his only other defense was an all out offense, he was short, a disadvantage, he had short arms, he was always off balance when throwing most of those 100s of punches, even Leonard worked with him,several times to help with that balance, it did not help as he went right back to his old self, He Did not Possess 1 Punch KO Power, he hit very hard with both hands,that's a big difference, his accumulation of hard shots, set up his knockouts, His Chin, I've read in many posts around the net, people say he had a steel, Chin, that's a Joke, & a comment only made by people that do not know Boxing or Pryor, he had a very, suspect Chin, I can't remember all the guys that put him down, Kameda, Kim, Johnson, young, Cervantes & others, the problem is, none of those guys had 1 PUnch KO Power, nor were they even known as power guys, some of them hit hard, they just did not possess enough skills to keep him down, once they knocked him down, whom in his entire career, did he ever fight as a Pro that was good, Cervantes was finished, but still put him down, in his Prime, he keeps him down, Arguello was no JWW, & well over his best weights, & nearing the end of a great Career, & Pryor & Panama Lewis had to cheat to beat him, or I believe Arguello wins, he definitely wins at LW where they should have fought, Pryor was ranked top 3 at LW at one time, & soon they would have had to give him a Title Shot, but his people ran him as fast as they could to a Depleted & weak JWW Division, the LW Division was loaded at that time and many more good fighters coming into the top 10 soon, Pryor never fought any of them, & never fought anyone with Power, WHY? Because his people & everyone in his whole camp knew, he stood an excellent chance of being knocked out with anyone with Power, they avoided every last one of them, he also managed to never fight Saoul Mamby who was ranked #1 at JWW during much of Pryor's reign, he had no power, but was a Solid Boxer, I think they avoided him, he would not fight an up an coming Johnny Bumphus at JWW, he turned down Leonard & Let Duran's offer expire, so Pryor's Camp, maybe not he himself, but his people avoided anyone they could, because they were that worried he would lose against a top guy, they wanted him to get good solid paydays against nobodies & remain Champ, so they could continue to rip him off & Live off him, behind the scenes.
Also it was widely known around Pryor's Gym & Camp, & everyone like myself, that he rarely if ever went into a Bout, without being high on Drugs, half the time, his people would Joke at the Gym days after a Win, that he didn't even know or remember whom he fought or if he had even won, he seemed to fight like a Wild Animal & at his best when on Drugs, & they knew it, so they kept him that way, for fights.
The only Fight I knew that he was not on something was the Young Fight, next, he had no Ring Generalship, had ZERO fight intelligence, he was uneducated & in fact, just plain Dumb kid, he barely could hold a conversation with u about anything, until after he retired & got clean of his addictions.
For all of those Reasons, Pryor Could never beat most of the top Fighters of his time.
He does not have 1 good Fighter on his resume, look at Arguello, he was an all-time great YES, but nearing the end of a great career, & well over his best weight, but still came close to winning it, & Cervantes was at the end, that’s it, Pryor ran from a Packed LW division to a shitty JWW one, he even somehow managed to avoid fighting the #1 contender at JWW for most of his reign in Saoul Mamby, how that happened I don't know, he never fought 1 good fighter in their Prime his entire career. what if he stayed at LW, he was ranked in top 3 there, what if, Pryor vs. Mancini, Blake, Gonzalez, Ganigan, Duran, Arguello, Rosario, Arroyo, Frias, Watt, Davis Jr., O'Grady, Kenty, Dejesus, Espana, Bramble, & he conveniently waited till Benitez left JWW to move up, all those what if fights, he should have & could have won many, if not most, but any of those guys with power could have hit him & ended it, whether he was better or not, Like Ganigan, if Andy hits him & I think he has a solid shot at it, before Pryor takes him out, Andy KO's him, but I still would like to have seen it happen, also he could have eventually Faced Bumphus, Chavez, Warren, McGirt, Paul, & others, he avoided Hearns, Leonard & Duran, also Haley, he never fought anyone.
Watch the Leonidas Asprilla Fight, he was a nobody, but fought a pretty decent nearly 10 round fight against Pryor, he hit Aaron, he boxed decent at times, but he was nothing, but still did fairly well, he showed Pryor left himself wide open and could be hit, it's just that he had nothing to take advantage of it with, Imagine, Leonard, who had the whole Package, and 10x better than Asprilla, he would have hit Pryor and won by UD or TKO.

 

Tyson.

 

THIS PERSON IS A COMPLETE LIAR AND A FRAUD. LOOK AT ALL PRYOR THREADS. IS THAT YOU RICHANDHUFF?

 

Tyson....undisputed champion...his win over Spinks ( above his best weight) is just as good as a win over Arguello (above his best weight)

 

Who did you pick to win Pryor vs Arguello 1?

 

Tyson. He was extremely dominant, with no chance of losing, in a more historically deep division. He also actually had a defense.

 

Mike, yet Mike never dug down deep against a legend as Pryor did. That is why Pryor is so well regarded. That fight was a war.

 

Could you expand on this a bit more for us?

 

Tyson is clearly greater. He cleaned out heavyweight and became the most popular athlete in the world. Unified the belt.
All that other nonsense aside, anyone with eyes knows Aaron Pryor was a great fighter as well. He was one of a kind. One of the best ever at 140. All the bull**** in the world can't change that.

 

Who was better is a much closer question. If Pryor was 5-11 215lbs with speed and power relative to what he has at Jr. Welterweight. Mike might tell one of his lackies to back the Bentley up...''this son of a ***** is crazy!'