Pryor-Arguello II (EDIT-Manny Steward chimed in on this)

Pryor seemed to have slienced his critics

 

Watch Pryor/Arguello 1...now...right...now.

It comes in at 2 on my all time favorite fights lists. It's one of if not the greatest fight of the 80s, in my opinion.

Their second encounter was basically a shorter and less competitive version, but entertaining all the same.

Also check out Arguello vs Escalera I and II, Chacon, Rooney, Olivares.

 

The black bottle incident the one that was ordered by Lewis between rounds 13, 14. It would seem that the words "give me the other bottle, the one I mixed" aroused suspicion when Pryor came out for round 14 like gangbusters with renewed vigor and then overwhleming Arguello. When you look at the finish it did seem that Aaron came out as though he was on something.

In the rematch tho he overwhelmed Alexis without controversy

 

Somebody else can fill you in more, but Arguello was one of the most textbook fighters that ever lived. His precision is unbelievable, I've never seen straighter punches than the ones he threw, whether it be a right cross or a left uppercut. He was beautiful to watch in every sense of the word. At his best, at 130lb, he punched like a mule and his reflexes were a bit better than what you saw in the Pryor fights. Three weight world champion, beat guys like Watt, Olivares, Escalera, Chacon, Mancini, etc. Aswell as having flawless technique, destructive power in both hands, he was also the very defintiion of a 15 round fighter. When his opponents would be slowing down, he'd still be fresh.

Expect to see him in most peoples top 30-40 P4P ATG rankings.

 

Arguello was a definite ATG IMO, one of the very, very best (and by that I mean #1 or 2) jr. lightweight champions of all time. Good all-around technician, very tough, and a tremendous puncher with both hands. Beginning with his upset of HOFer Ruben Olivares to take the featherweight title, he began a decade-long string of wins over the top fighters of 126 through 135. He was actually in line for a megafight with Duran at one point, but a questionable split decision loss to Vilomar Fernandez cost us that. He moved up to 140 in an effort to become the first fighter ever to win titles in four weight classes. The extra weight visibly slowed him down, but he still carried his punch at the weight, as he showed in flattening Kevin Rooney (yes, the Tyson trainer).

Pryor is a bit harder to judge IMO. He was a fast, aggressive, swarming fighter who featured in a lot of exciting fights, but he was not considered a truly great fighter until he beat Arguello. He had always talked a lot of trash (for example, he used to show up at Ray Leonard's press conferences and call him out), but some questioned whether he really was just a lot of mouth. Once he beat Arguello, he was the hottest fighter on the planet and had the world at his feet. But it seemed like just as quickly as he found fame, he faded away.

For Arguello (in order of greatness/significance)

1) Escalera II - Epic ATG battle
2) Olivares - Arguello's first title win, dramatic see-saw battle vs. fellow HOFer.
3) Escalera I - Arguello's greatest performance
4) Limon
5) Ganigan

Also: Boza Edwards, Mancini


For Pryor:

1) Dujuan Johnson
2) Akio Kameda
3) Cervantes

Before the start of the fateful 14th round, Panama Lewis (Pryor's trainer) said to the other cornermen "Gimme the other bottle, the one I mixed!" Pryor then was given a mysterious black bottle to drink from, which he had also been given at least once earlier, after the 1st round. Pryor had been ahead for much of the fight, but Arguello has staged something of a rally in the last few rounds, and also scored with a big right hand in the 13th. After drinking from the bottle, Pryor came out and attacked again as though the fight had just started, and he quickly got Arguello against the ropes and pummeled him with about 20 or so unanswered punches to force a stoppage. Because Lewis' admission that the bottle was "mixed" was caught on live TV, there was a big uproar after the fight, but the Miami commission mysteriously "lost" the results of Pryor's drug test, and so they refused to take any official action.

Panama Lewis of course is the same cheating scumbug who found a way to take the padding out of Luis Resto's gloves before his fight with Billy Collins, which cost Collins his career.

 

Its nieve to think that the rematch results put away the black bottle controversy of fight one......

.....not only was Arguello's body beat and taxed throughout that first fight, but the ending was so horrific. A wonderful, prideful fighter, pinned to the ropes and refusing to go down from brutal shot after brutal shot.....

......it was only until the fight was finally stopped, that Arguello slumped lifeless to the canvas......

I dont care who the hell you are, you dont come back the same after such a beatdown.......and to think that Pryor likely cheated???????

.......the rematch silences nothing of what transpired in their first meeting!fire



God help me, but thats the one fight in my years as a boxing fan that I feel a great champion in Arguello was wronged.
I feel Arguello was cheated, and I as a boxing fan feel cheated of witnessing history being made, as Arguello would have become the first fighter in history to win 4 titles in different weight classes.

 

And arguably, his life.

 

That fight (Pryor v Arguello 1) will always be tainted, and that sBag Lewis should have done more than 2.5 years for the the Collins cheat. Yes in my eyes also, Lewis - Resto caused Collins early demise.

They should both rot in hell.

 

That dirtbag had loaded gloves in the past also, about 3 times.

I always had thought it was padding removed out. Then Resto admitted that not only was the padding removed, but Plaster of Paris was sprinkled on.

**** both of those dirtbags.

 

Amen. Great post. I try to give Pryor the benefit of the doubt but it's very difficult because Panama Lewis was in his corner. The 2nd fight didn't prove ****. Very, very few fighters recover fully from such a knockout (first fight) and certainly not an old fighter 10 lbs over his best weight.

 

Hey TS,

I never knew that about the plaster of paris, and the other loaded gloves occurances.

**** them even more.

 

It's on youtube. He explains how he did it and says he did it 3 times before in the past.