RIP Aaron Pryor

Boxing great dead at 60

 

Great, great fighter best known for his epic first fight with Alexis Arguello. I was at his title defence against Nicky Furlano in Toronto in 1984.

RIP to one of the great action fighters of his time, or any other time.

 

Agreed with both posts. Arguello-Pryor was awesome. Fighters don't often get to be old, I'm afraid.

 

loved watching him, especially against Arguello. had drug problems but went to rehab and was sober for a long time.

 

He did a heck of a job turning his life around. I met him three years ago. I really enjoyed talking to him.
He was actually a lightweight who only moved up because neither of the lightweight champions at the time (it was just the WBA and WBC then) wanted anything to do with him.

 

IBF started in 83.

 

'Give me the mix'

Great fighter and great, almost iconic fight.

 

He won the title in 1980.

 

yes i know. you said there was just wba and wbc then. when he first won title there wasn't. he later was ibf champ also.

 

That was one of the things the IBF had going for it when it started. It recognized the dominant existing champions, most notably, Pryor, Marvelous Mavin Hagler and Larry Holmes. It was based in the U.S., while the WBA and WBC were based in Panama and Mexico and the IBF was the last holdout with the 15-round fights.
In the end, it turned out to be just like the others.

 

It's crazy how sometimes one organization's belt is legit and other times a joke. had to look it up because i remember when Tyson was champ the WBO title holder was kind of a joke. it went from Francesco Damiani (didn't even remember him) to Ray Mercer. then Tommie Morrison and Herbie Hide. then Riddick Bowe beat Herbie Hide, making it the first time a legit champ held it.

 

None of the four major ones have a monopoly on all the best fighters and most major promoters have champions in each one.
Like everyone else, I think it would be great if we could somehow go back to one undisputed champion at each weight but that would be like putting toothpaste back in the tube at this point. If somehow they could go back to that, inevitably, there would be a promoter who had fighters who could never get title shots. He'd start his own organization or find someone else to start one and that's how the whole mess probably got started.

.