Which in your opinion was the more blatant duck

Any fighter can "call out" someone or challenge them at an interview.

Fights are made with contracts and lawyers. You'd think by now that boxing fans would know that words mean **** all when it comes to making fights and negotiations is what matters.

Pryor didn't have to wait long at all. In fact, he was offered a shot at Leonard's WW title very quickly.

Leonard won a welterweight title in November 1979. He lost it in June 1980 to Duran, when Pryor was just a junior welterweight (and also a lightweight) contender. Pryor won an 140 lb. title in August 1980, the same day Hearns beat Cuevas. 3 months later, in Novembr, Leonard regained the title in the Duran rematch.

In March 1981, Pryor fought Lennox Blackmoore and said in the post-fight interview that he turned down the Leonard fight because he wanted more than a half a million. You can argue either way you want regarding the monetary amount. On one side, Leonard would be taking the huge lion's share of the prize and you can say Pryor deserved more. On the other hand, Pryor had won the title a few months earlier and was paid just $50,000 for that. This was ten times that amount. Ayub Kalule was champion longer and paid less than half a mliion. Roberto Duran was champion since 1972, the best fighter of the 80s, had headlined numerous MSG cards and made the Sports Illustrated cover a few times, and wasn't paid that much more when he fought Leonard the first time. I think he got about a million, compared to Leonard's $8 million.

Chances are, Leonard offered Pryor the fight after he won the rematch with Duran (as opposed to before the first Duran fight), because Pryor was a champion by the time Leonard and Duran had their rematch. That means within the 4-month period between Leonard-Duran 2 and Pryor-Blackmoore, Leonard offered Pryor a fight. 4 months. That is not a long time at all.

Pryor won a world title in August 1980 and within a few months, was offered a fight against Leonard. That's very fast. Many fighters wait years after winning a title before getting an offer from the sport's biggest star. Look at how many world title holders directly below and above 147 never got their chance at Mayweather or Pacquiao. They sometimes tended to get it when they looked vulnerable.

 

Delete

wrote it up and saw thread stealer had already made the points in better detail, great post btw

Pryor mentioned the Leonard contract himself, so idk might need to be looked into more.

 

An offer that according to Pryor was an insult. I like Leonard, but I can believe this type of story simply because it sounds so much like Leonard.

 

How is a half a million dollars lowballing?

 

It was Marquez who refused the offer, instead, choosing to fight Freddie Norwood for less money.

A good career move because Hamed would have put him to sleep.

 

It just depends on how you look at it. Of course if you look at it from Pryor's POV, your pride and ego isn't going to be like "what the hell? He's hogging so much of the purse".

On the other hand, look at how much Pryor was getting around this time normally. Half a million was TEN times more than what he got for facing the old legendary Cervantes. Also, with Leonard being the golden boy diva, this offer was consistent with what other opponents were getting. Look at Duran and how established he was. He wasn't some newcomer on the block, he was the best fighter of the 70s and had a champion since 1972, eight years earlier. He got about a million and a half compared to Leonard's 8 million the first time around. Like it would have been if Pryor accepted the fight, it was both far below Leonard's purse, but far more than what he had ever made before.

 

I think Hamed offered the fight to Marquez on very short notice.

 

There's a video available on youtube before the Augie Sanchez fight where Merchant goes through a list of possible opponents.

Larry Merchant mentions Marquez as strange because he was getting a career high payday and still refused to fight Hamed.

 

Tyson ducking Foreman.

 

Yeah just like he did Barrera, oh wait....

 

Because Barrera and Marquez is the same person.

 

Foreman ducking Holmes, Bowe, Lewis, Tyson, Tucker, Ruddock and Mcall amongst others.

 

Come on give the guy a break, he was older than your hero who at 38 was getting battered by the legendary Kevin McBride...