Another week, another trip back in time when boxing was magical and fighters were amazing.
Tonight we look at the epic battle between IBF Junior Welterweight Champion
Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor and 3 time world champion
Alexis Arguello from 1982 in Miami.
Side note: I have a major bias here as Arguello is one of my most favorite fighters and back in time my gym hosted a big boxing tournament for charity and Arguello attended. I spent 3+ hours with the man and was amazed at his humility, grace, and class. What a man. Sadly, he is gone.
Pryor was undefeated and was looking for a fight against Sugar Ray Leonard. Leonard came out with his detached retina story, and the fight was never set up. Pryor being so much better than anyone around him needed a challenge.
Alexis Arguello, who never lost a title in the ring, would step up in weight yet again to take that challenge.
What ensued can only be seen to be believed.
Two great fighters at their peak (Pryor) or very near (Arguello) facing off, it still gives me goosebumps watching this fight.
Punch of the fight is at the 41:40 mark of the video where Aguello hits Pryor so hard with a right Pryor's own head touches his back. No one should be able to take a shot like that, wow.
In the 14th Pryor's relentless attack overwhelms Arguello, who is stopped brutally to end the fight.
Two judges had Pryor ahead at the time, with scores both at 127-124. One judge had Arguello ahead 127-125, which is how I had the fight scored going into the 14th round.
http://boxrec.com/boxer/8993
I could write all night about this epic contest, no words can really capture it.
There was an issue with this fight however.
Very clearly caught by the HBO corner cameras, Pryor's trainer/manager Panama Lewis is heard to say "give me the OTHER BOTTLE, THE ONE THAT I MIXED" and a corner second gives him a SPRAY bottle that Lewis removes the nozzle from and tells Pryor to drink it and "swallow some". This was after round 13 and the epic shot Pryor took. It's lost in history now, but no tests were done post fight and it's all over anyway.
I asked Alexis about that possibility that maybe Pryor was given something late in that fight. He said, and I quote "Aaron beat me. He was better that night and he beat me. I did my best." What a man, what a class act.
Good ESPN article on the fight:
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id...xis-arguello-i
Enjoy!