How competitive would Aaron Pryor vs Duran be?

The idea that Aaron Pryor was a lightweight who had to move up to 140 to get a title shot is a good bit of myth-making by his manager or publicist. He only made 135 or even within a pound or so of it like three or four times in all the fights where he has a recorded weight.

Aaron’s only notable win around that weight was when he stopped Peppermint Frazier while weighing in at 136 — and Peppermint (lovely nickname btw) came in at 139 … and it’s not like he came in heavy. They clearly knew they were fighting in the 140 division because Frazier hadn’t scaled as a lightweight in nine years.

So this fight absolutely doesn’t take place at 135 … and if it does, we have absolutely no idea of Aaron’s durability or stamina at that weight against a true lightweight ATG who fights at Roberto’s pace.

That makes this a 140-pound tilt. I’d liked to have seen Duran have like a 2-year stopover at light welter to see how he settled at the weight. What we do know is he didn’t really seem to carry his punch up with him in the fights where he tested the 140 waters — he was strong, of course, and beat some decent (but far from great) guys in that division, but I don’t think he has a KO against anyone who counts (and this is pretty much true of Roberto at welter and above if you look at it — mostly he could maybe knock them down but couldn’t get them out if they were world class … Pipino and Davey Moore blinded-by-the-thumbed-eye excepted).

Simply put, Roberto might have been formidable at 140 but he was not an overwhelming force of nature as far as was ever demonstrated.

Aaron was, indeed, a force of nature at 140. He was a Tasmanian devil and a whirling dervish with power, ridiculous offense, real power and he could take a punch. I hate the Panama Lewis bottle thing (and Panama himself) as much as the next guy, but there’s no evidence of such in the rematch or his other fights, and Aaron was simple a marvel. Look at the first round of the first Arguello fight and what Pryor both dished out and took as they went to war right away.

I have to think Pryor pounds out a 15-round decision over Duran at 140. Too much, too fast, although it would be a helluva battle. In the end, Aaron takes 10 rounds or so and really pulls away down the stretch I think — and we probably get an excuse of how Roberto didn’t train seriously enough and some chickens woke him up too early during camp or some such nonsense (yes, that was part of his excuse for the Wilfred Benitez outclassing).

 

while i slightly favour Duran at 140 due to his greater skill, this is an outstanding, well thought out post. Great match up.

 

I think it really just depends on what time it is.

 

Prime 4 Prime, Aaron does not have anything to offer Duran other than his zero.

 

I've posted this previously. Duran is a terrible terrible matchup for Pryor.

Great fight while it lasts. Duran's brilliant instincts and technical advantages take the chocolates. He's got everything else at 140 too - plenty of speed, great durability and loads of power. His brutal body attack and infighting skills will necessitate that Pryor goes into boxing mode after testing Duran early via an aggressive start. Duran scores an early flash knockdown and when Pryor customarily goes right back at him harder Duran welcomes the frenzied aggression and makes him pay landing raking shots to both body and head while taking noticeably little in return. Duran forces him to the ropes and puts some serious heat on him forcing Pryor to change it up to a more cautious approach.

The rounds fall into a predictable pattern with Duran pressuring and Pryor utilizing his underrated skills. Duran traps Pryor on the ropes at various times and goes to work while Pryor has some fleeting success with out of the blue attacks of his own, throwing punches in bunches and trying to get out of there before Duran finds his range. Duran slowly wears Pryor down and at some point late in the fight times one of Pryor's ebbing attacks and drops him hard. Pryor rises but Duran is all over him like white on rice and the ref chooses to end proceedings with Pryor still on his feet.

 

Prime 4 prime that fight would be a barn burner. Duran might be able to stop black bottle Pryor who was an offensive machine.

 

Another Flavor Flav reference.

 

Let’s say 2:30 PM, EST.

 

Let me put my bifocals on, just one second. Check the old chart here, and...


...

...Yep, that's Hawk Time! 2:11 - 7:15 PM, EST, Hawk Time. Pryor takes this one.

 

Boxing really is easy, if one looks at it the right way.

 

Competitive fight.

But hey, Duran plays the percentage game in offense and defense much better than Pryor.

 

Too bad these guys' careers weren't in sync. T'would have been an excellent donnybrook. We got to see all of Duran's talent and skill play out. We saw Pryor's greatness but not his limits. Just how great was he? Duran held the answer. Had fate brought them together in real time, we would have known all.

 

There’s no doubt that Pryor could keep up with Duran. That guy was relentless from start to finish, suspect water bottles or not. Whether he could beat Duran is another thing but it wouldn’t shock me to see the busier Pryor take a close decision over 15

 

What a joke. Duran absolutely destroys Pryor. Pryor even with the black bottle which he would have, can't do anything with Duran. Duran is a top 5 p4p fighter, Pryor was nothing but a wannabe coke head, who's biggest win he obtained thru drugs, guy was a total scumbag loser.