Pryor
AARON Pryor, the relentless junior welterweight who fought two memorable bouts with Alexis Arguello, died Sunday. He was 60.
Pryor’s family issued a statement saying the boxer died at his home in Cincinnati after a long battle with heart disease.
Known as “The Hawk,” Pryor was a crowd favorite who fought with a frenetic style, rarely if ever taking a step backward. His fights in the early 1980s with Arguello , the great Nicaraguan champion, were both classics that are still talked about in boxing circles.
But Pryor was a troubled champion, and his career would unravel because of an addiction to cocaine.
“He was very unorthodox and could throw punches from all kinds of angles with great hand speed,” said former Associated Press boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. “He was a great fighter, it’s too bad he didn’t have more fights.”
Pryor’s widow, Frankie Pryor, said her husband — who would later speak out about the evils of drugs — also had a side most fans didn’t know about.
“Aaron was known around the world as `The Hawk’ and delighted millions of fans with his aggressive and crowd-pleasing boxing style,” she said in a statement announcing his death. “But to our family he was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend.”
Pryor was unbeaten in 31 fights when he and Arguello met in a 140-pound title clash in the Orange Bowl in Miami on Nov. 12, 1982. Arguello was a classic boxer-puncher considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters, but Pryor would not back off as the two men traded punches for the better part of 14 rounds.
Pryor finally wore Arguello down, stopping him in the 14th round with a flurry of punches. Ring Magazine later picked the bout as the Fight of the Decade.