Comments Thread For: Bozy Ennis Happy With Cruz But Rules Out Boots For Benn

[Combat Talk Radio]

He wants to fight Leonard, and it is easy for him to move down to lightweight, Pryor, where's the duck? Leonard fought Benitez in 79 for the WW belt, Duran 1, 06/1980, Duran 2 11/1980, while Aaron was fighting in 08/1980 for his first belt against Cervantes, in 06/1981 Leonard moved up to 154lbs and challenged Kalule three months later he fought Hearns, while Pryor was fighting Arguello at 140, after the Arguello fight he disappears for a while and was later known he had a drugs/alcohol addiction, so check the timeline and tell me when did Leonard duck a smaller fighter and why? When he was fighting Duran twice, Hearns, Benitez, and Kalule(don't let his name fool you, he was a heck of a fighter and Olympic Silver medal winner). That duck was a sentimental thing, there was no clamoring for that fight to be made and back then boxers didn't move up as they do today, Duran first, and Leonard later started that trend. While Pryor was a fighting machine, the perception was that Leonard would have killed him just like Hearns due to the gap in size. And that comment you posted is bullS, Leonard was fighting killers and if the fight could have been made he would have signed without any worry, he always followed the glory. I saw both fighters and I can tell you with the magic water or not, Leonard would have KO'D Pryor, he was hurt a few times by lesser fighters than Leonard, and he would have been put on a stretcher if he hadn't cheated against Arguello.

Okay, but the fact is, Leonard sent Pryor TWO contracts. One for $500k, then one for $750k. So Leonard at least on paper was trying to "fight a smaller fighter" as you say.

My point only is, IF we say that Leonard ducked Pryor using lowball offers, then we have to ask why it's not ducking for Crawford to openly REFUSE to fight Boots who is his same weight right now and Crawford has been sitting inactive since July.

People say Pryor wasn't worth it due to smaller weight and that's not a duck, but NSB and YouTube peeps swear up and down that Crawford should fight a lightweight or a super lightweight instead of Boots who is his same weight class because Boots "brings nothing to the table". Or fight Canelo who's grossly oversized instead of fighting his (then) mandatory in his current weight class, yet that's not ducking?

All's I'm asking is, make it make sense, and let's just be consistent.

[garfios]

Okay, but the fact is, Leonard sent Pryor TWO contracts. One for $500k, then one for $750k. So Leonard at least on paper was trying to "fight a smaller fighter" as you say.

My point only is, IF we say that Leonard ducked Pryor using lowball offers, then we have to ask why it's not ducking for Crawford to openly REFUSE to fight Boots who is his same weight right now and Crawford has been sitting inactive since July.

People say Pryor wasn't worth it due to smaller weight and that's not a duck, but NSB and YouTube peeps swear up and down that Crawford should fight a lightweight or a super lightweight instead of Boots who is his same weight class because Boots "brings nothing to the table". Or fight Canelo who's grossly oversized instead of fighting his (then) mandatory in his current weight class, yet that's not ducking?

All's I'm asking is, make it make sense, and let's just be consistent.

I don't care about Crawford or any other fighter because we're talking about Leonard vs Pryor, from a time that they only make money when fighting real threats there's was no ducking like we see today. $750,000 in 1981 was real money and Pryor wasn't the household he became after Arguello. I don't know about the offers he sent, but I believe Leonard had a manager and a promoter behind him, if an offer was made was from one them and Pryor wasn't making that kind of money for fighting johnson or cervantes, he made $50,000.00 against Pambele, so $750K was a good offer at that moment, for Arguello he made $2.25m and el flaco 1.75m.