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Originally posted by Rspen46
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We will never know for sure, at least with some or many fighters, you can look at their records and whom they fought and how many Ko's and such they attained and at least give some basis for a consensus to answer such a question, but with Pryor, we can't, here are the reasons why.
1. Whom did he really beat.
A. Antonio Cervantes, one of the greatest ever in his division, but he was at the very end of his Career when he met Pryor, and he still put PRyor down in the fight, what could he have done in his Prime against Aaron.
B. Alexi Arguello, Arguello was a very solid LW, and excellent JLW, he had never fought at JWW, I believe it was too much for him, LW was his Max, yes he could have beaten most anyone else in a weak division but Pryor, but he also was nearing the end of his career, fighting in a division over his Prime, and Pryor had to have cheating help from Panama Lewis giving him something to help him.
Look at the great, awesome Right Hand, Arguello landed the one in my photo, he bent Pryor's head straight back, and Pryor acted as if it never happened, he was put down by much lesser fighters, without Lewis's concoction, he was would have gone down from that punch.
C. Dujuan Johnson, from the Tommy Hearns stable of fighters, but one of their lesser guys, he had decent but not great power and was ranked top 5 I think, and he even put Pryor down, but he was nothing.
D. Hearns in the amateurs, Hearns was nowhere near fully mature physically or mentally, Aaron was near his time to fight pro, he was maturing both ways, hearns had yet to develope the awesome Power he would be known for, so that fight means nothing, in the Pros, Hearns would have done to Pryor what he did to duran.
E. Arguello in the 2nd fight - even more close to his career end, and his heart an will to even compete against Pryor had been stolen by cheating him in the 1st fight, again, the Arguello fights can only be used so far to judege Pryors ability, now if they had fought at LW and Pryor had not cheated with Lewis, and beat him that way, then I would have another thought, but i think Arguello would have won that one.
F. sorry I can't think of the Japanese fighter Pryor fought right now, but he also put Pryor down and I think he was at the time ranked top 10 at JWW, he was an average fighter at JWW in the top 10 of a weak division, with just fair power and he put pryor down.
Other than these fights, Pryor did not come close to fighting anyone that we could use as a measuring stick as to how good he really was.
Yes he was a whirl wind, not stop puncher, not with KO power, but with hard punching power in both hands, good speed, but not the greatest defense, he could be hit, he could be put down, I believe if he fought a fighter in his Prime with great power, he would most likely get hit and taken out.
He turned down Money to fight Leonard, he did not reply in the time given to a fight with Duran, so Duran moved on up to WW, he wanted to add the JWW title to his resume as he moved up, he would have destroyed Pyror in a war, thats the one I would have loved to see.
I believe Pryor's people purposefully kept him away from anyone with above average power to great power, he claims no one at LW wanted to fight him, but not true, I've checked out all I could, adn pryor was offered a fight with 2 or 3 top 10 LW fighters and turned them down, under the excuse that he thought he deserved the title shot, he never got it and ran to a much weaker JWW division to fight, I believe he would have possibly dominated a loaded LW division at the time, he probably would have pounded out a victory over Hilmer kenty the way O'Grady did, and also against Watt, but I think Andy Ganigan had the huge power and stood a shot at koing him, if he hit him, Pryor vs. Mancini before the Kim fight would have been a war, either could have won at the time, Pryor vs. Rockin Robin blake would have been good, but Pryor wins, also Harry Arroyo, Pryor wins, Rosario, he gets Koed, Gato Gonzales, had a punchers shot to beat him, Bramble gets pounded, O'Grady would have been good, toss up there, Pryor by TKO or close decision or O'grady by Decision, Jimmy Paul had the punchers shot to ko him, another toss up for me, Hearns at JWW he KO's Pryor, Leonard at JWW, he wins a decision or TKO, Duran, KOs pryor, Cuevas at a Catch weight, KOs Pryor, so many awesome bouts Pryor never got to see and or avoided, so his Crew could steal all they could before they let him burn out on DRUGS!
So no to the answer of can we even discuss how good he was, no way to even ever gage that.
1. Whom did he really beat.
A. Antonio Cervantes, one of the greatest ever in his division, but he was at the very end of his Career when he met Pryor, and he still put PRyor down in the fight, what could he have done in his Prime against Aaron.
B. Alexi Arguello, Arguello was a very solid LW, and excellent JLW, he had never fought at JWW, I believe it was too much for him, LW was his Max, yes he could have beaten most anyone else in a weak division but Pryor, but he also was nearing the end of his career, fighting in a division over his Prime, and Pryor had to have cheating help from Panama Lewis giving him something to help him.
Look at the great, awesome Right Hand, Arguello landed the one in my photo, he bent Pryor's head straight back, and Pryor acted as if it never happened, he was put down by much lesser fighters, without Lewis's concoction, he was would have gone down from that punch.
C. Dujuan Johnson, from the Tommy Hearns stable of fighters, but one of their lesser guys, he had decent but not great power and was ranked top 5 I think, and he even put Pryor down, but he was nothing.
D. Hearns in the amateurs, Hearns was nowhere near fully mature physically or mentally, Aaron was near his time to fight pro, he was maturing both ways, hearns had yet to develope the awesome Power he would be known for, so that fight means nothing, in the Pros, Hearns would have done to Pryor what he did to duran.
E. Arguello in the 2nd fight - even more close to his career end, and his heart an will to even compete against Pryor had been stolen by cheating him in the 1st fight, again, the Arguello fights can only be used so far to judege Pryors ability, now if they had fought at LW and Pryor had not cheated with Lewis, and beat him that way, then I would have another thought, but i think Arguello would have won that one.
F. sorry I can't think of the Japanese fighter Pryor fought right now, but he also put Pryor down and I think he was at the time ranked top 10 at JWW, he was an average fighter at JWW in the top 10 of a weak division, with just fair power and he put pryor down.
Other than these fights, Pryor did not come close to fighting anyone that we could use as a measuring stick as to how good he really was.
Yes he was a whirl wind, not stop puncher, not with KO power, but with hard punching power in both hands, good speed, but not the greatest defense, he could be hit, he could be put down, I believe if he fought a fighter in his Prime with great power, he would most likely get hit and taken out.
He turned down Money to fight Leonard, he did not reply in the time given to a fight with Duran, so Duran moved on up to WW, he wanted to add the JWW title to his resume as he moved up, he would have destroyed Pyror in a war, thats the one I would have loved to see.
I believe Pryor's people purposefully kept him away from anyone with above average power to great power, he claims no one at LW wanted to fight him, but not true, I've checked out all I could, adn pryor was offered a fight with 2 or 3 top 10 LW fighters and turned them down, under the excuse that he thought he deserved the title shot, he never got it and ran to a much weaker JWW division to fight, I believe he would have possibly dominated a loaded LW division at the time, he probably would have pounded out a victory over Hilmer kenty the way O'Grady did, and also against Watt, but I think Andy Ganigan had the huge power and stood a shot at koing him, if he hit him, Pryor vs. Mancini before the Kim fight would have been a war, either could have won at the time, Pryor vs. Rockin Robin blake would have been good, but Pryor wins, also Harry Arroyo, Pryor wins, Rosario, he gets Koed, Gato Gonzales, had a punchers shot to beat him, Bramble gets pounded, O'Grady would have been good, toss up there, Pryor by TKO or close decision or O'grady by Decision, Jimmy Paul had the punchers shot to ko him, another toss up for me, Hearns at JWW he KO's Pryor, Leonard at JWW, he wins a decision or TKO, Duran, KOs pryor, Cuevas at a Catch weight, KOs Pryor, so many awesome bouts Pryor never got to see and or avoided, so his Crew could steal all they could before they let him burn out on DRUGS!
So no to the answer of can we even discuss how good he was, no way to even ever gage that.
Pryor was a damn good fighter but no a great one. He would have beaten a lot of fighter that were technically better than him with pure volume punching.
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