was ray leonard scared of aaron pryor???

[Goodnight, Irene]

I dont think Leonard was afraid to fight him.
I dont remember any serious talk of this fight coming off.
Mike Trainer,Leonards manager/adviser probably had no interest in dealing with criminal degenerate
Panama Lewis.
That combined with Pryors out of the ring adventures such as drug abuse,being shot by his ex wife and being kidnapped,might have hurt any negotiations a bit.
At some point,any sane person trying to run an enterprise like Ray Leonard is going to say "who needs this sh1t?"when it comes to dealing with the chaos surrounding young Aaron.

You might have a point regarding some of Pryor's outer-ring activities, but I don't think anyone from Leonard's camp would make no much noise about the drugs.

Leonard was probably racking up right next to Pryor at a party or two. He is also an exposed wife-beater, for what it's worth.

[Crease]

Lenoard scared? Hell no. That lad loved a good fight.

[jaclem2]

...and joe louis was terrified of fighting king levinsky...

[IKSRTFO]

Hell no!
This is a guy that fought Hearns & Hagler & Duran twice!!!
Why the FK would he of been scared of AP? He would of beaten AP every day of the week & twice on Sunday!

Because out of Hearns, Hagler, and Duran, Pryor even though less of a physical threat could never be conned by SRL's mind games. Pryor just couldn't be psychologically broke down. The same was true for Hagler which is why Leonard waited until Hagler slowed down before he fought him.

[IKSRTFO]

Leonard was the De La Hoya of his day , fighting him would make you rich so everyone wanted to fight him.

He had nothing to gain by fighting a guy that really should have stayed at lightweight.

He had more to gain in fighting Pryor than beating on Mayweather Sr.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Leonard was the De La Hoya of his day , fighting him would make you rich so everyone wanted to fight him.

He had nothing to gain by fighting a guy that really should have stayed at lightweight.

He had more to gain in fighting Pryor than beating on Mayweather Sr.

LOL, your time line needs some work. Pryor had about 10 fights when Leonard fought Mayweather Sr.

And Leonard's mind games most definitely worked against Hagler.

[Cutman Scabbers]

I read somewhere that he avoided him in the amateurs.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

They were in different weight classes. It's pretty difficult to avoid guys that really want to fight you in the amateurs.

[The End]

Leonard was the De La Hoya of his day , fighting him would make you rich so everyone wanted to fight him.

He had nothing to gain by fighting a guy that really should have stayed at lightweight.

He had more to gain in fighting Pryor than beating on Mayweather Sr.

How old are you?

Wait let me guess. You weren't even alive when Leonard fought Mayweather Sr. were you?

Floyd Mayweather was a ranked welterweight contender when Leonard beat him and it helped Leonard climb to the top at welterweight.

During that time period Aaron Pryor was climbing the ranks as a lightweight.

[Ezzard]

Leonard admitted in interviews that he didn’t grant rematches because once he’d won he didn’t feel he could motivate himself again.

If you want to criticise Ray Leonard then criticise him for the rematches he didn’t grant. Or criticise the boxing powers who allowed him to jump the queue of contenders to fight Hagler or the same people who allowed him to fight for 2 titles on one night.

Not fighting Pryor? Leonard would have spanked him.

[IKSRTFO]

Leonard was the De La Hoya of his day , fighting him would make you rich so everyone wanted to fight him.

He had nothing to gain by fighting a guy that really should have stayed at lightweight.

He had more to gain in fighting Pryor than beating on Mayweather Sr.

LOL, your time line needs some work. Pryor had about 10 fights when Leonard fought Mayweather Sr.

And Leonard's mind games most definitely worked against Hagler.

Its not about time line, just point that Leonard could fight down a level when he wanted to. And lets be real, while Floyd Sr. was a decent welter, he was NEVER as good as Pryor. And you're right, Leonards games did work on Hagler, that's why he waited to fight him. Had he fought him in 82, it wouldn've have worked.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

It's exactly the time line, Pryor was never a viable opponent for leonard. It's right along the lines of the people that scream bloody murder for Hearns & Duran not fighting McCallum. The outrage over those displays of 'ducking" are far more prevalent on the internet now than they were in the Boxing community at the time.

Aaron Pryor was never a better Welterweight than mayweather Sr and he certainly wouldn't have been more of a challenge at the time of the fight. he was a Lightweight that moved up for a title shot. Forget about leonard, I wouldn't pick him over benitez, Palomino or cuevas. I doubt he would beat Weston there.

Hagler's biggest mistake against Leonard was agreeing to 12 rds, he could have gotten away with everything else if he had 9 more minutes.

I can promise you that you will never converse with someone who hates Leonard more than I do. Complaining about him not fighting Pryor is a complete joke.

[Syntax Error]

i heard ray leonard refused to fight pryor on a couple of occasions and my dad reckons he even moved up a division to avoid him... was leonard really that intimidated by aaron pryor? i find it hard to believe that a guy that got in the ring with hagler, hearns and duran would be intimidated by anybody? does anyone know more on this??

I've heard this so often & frankly I don't buy it.

Leonard was the golden goose of boxing in the arly 1980s & he had way bigger fish to fry than the admittedly excellent Aaron Pryor.

If Pryor really wanted a piece of Leonard, he should have jumped to 147 & beat a path to Leonard's door, but the fact that he stuck around in the hardly stellar 140 division suggests to me that his ambition wasn't quite as great as his talk.

[IKSRTFO]

It's exactly the time line, Pryor was never a viable opponent for leonard. It's right along the lines of the people that scream bloody murder for Hearns & Duran not fighting McCallum. The outrage over those displays of 'ducking" are far more prevalent on the internet now than they were in the Boxing community at the time.

Aaron Pryor was never a better Welterweight than mayweather Sr and he certainly wouldn't have been more of a challenge at the time of the fight. he was a Lightweight that moved up for a title shot. Forget about leonard, I wouldn't pick him over benitez, Palomino or cuevas. I doubt he would beat Weston there.

Hagler's biggest mistake against Leonard was agreeing to 12 rds, he could have gotten away with everything else if he had 9 more minutes.

I can promise you that you will never converse with someone who hates Leonard more than I do. Complaining about him not fighting Pryor is a complete joke.

Him moving up from lightweight doesn't mean much. Duran was also a lightweight who didn't stop at light welter. Chavez was never a welter but DLH gets the credit for beating him. Mosley jumped from lightweight to welter for DLH. Should have DLH ducked him too? Pacquaio is not really a welterweight. Does that mean Welter shouldn't fight him?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

It's exactly the time line, Pryor was never a viable opponent for leonard. It's right along the lines of the people that scream bloody murder for Hearns & Duran not fighting McCallum. The outrage over those displays of 'ducking" are far more prevalent on the internet now than they were in the Boxing community at the time.

Aaron Pryor was never a better Welterweight than mayweather Sr and he certainly wouldn't have been more of a challenge at the time of the fight. he was a Lightweight that moved up for a title shot. Forget about leonard, I wouldn't pick him over benitez, Palomino or cuevas. I doubt he would beat Weston there.

Hagler's biggest mistake against Leonard was agreeing to 12 rds, he could have gotten away with everything else if he had 9 more minutes.

I can promise you that you will never converse with someone who hates Leonard more than I do. Complaining about him not fighting Pryor is a complete joke.

Him moving up from lightweight doesn't mean much. Duran was also a lightweight who didn't stop at light welter. Chavez was never a welter but DLH gets the credit for beating him. Mosley jumped from lightweight to welter for DLH. Should have DLH ducked him too? Pacquaio is not really a welterweight. Does that mean Welter shouldn't fight him?

Duran actually fought at Welterweight about 7 or 8 times and beat Carlos palomino convincingly before he fought Leonard. Pryor never moving up means plenty.

Mosley actually pursued a fight with DLH and fought Rivera at Welterweight. Shane was a pretty big deal at the time and the public was into the fight. Hardly anybody knew who Aaron Pryor was. He was never ducked by Leonard. You can cling to the notion and make up horrible analogies for the rest of your life. It never happened.

Oscar gets very little credit for beating Chavez at 140, even less at 147.

Pacquiao is a Welterweight.

Wow man, just a terrible post all the way around. Great fighters are afforded opportunities when they move up in weight. Pryor was calling out a retired fighter. I'm sure Leonard would have much rather fought Pryor than nearly losing an eye against Hearns, LOL at Tommy being broken down mentally BTW, but he wouldn't have gotten paid the big bucks or soaked in the big glory. Ducking Pryor to fight Hearns is like ducking the clap for Aids.

[Grimm]

He had more to gain in fighting Pryor than beating on Mayweather Sr.

LOL, your time line needs some work. Pryor had about 10 fights when Leonard fought Mayweather Sr.

And Leonard's mind games most definitely worked against Hagler.

Its not about time line, just point that Leonard could fight down a level when he wanted to. And lets be real, while Floyd Sr. was a decent welter, he was NEVER as good as Pryor. And you're right, Leonards games did work on Hagler, that's why he waited to fight him. Had he fought him in 82, it wouldn've have worked.

Does your name stand for I knocked sugar ray the F out?

[BoxBuzz]

IKSRTFO.......Grimm, it can't mean anything else.

The only other possibility would be the age old question:

Is Knowing sh-t really that fu--ing ostentatious?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

It's amazing how many "fans" really think these fighters fear each other. And the "ducker" is always the greater fighter. Those two methodologies are hair brained on their own, and then when you add them together they make even less sense.

Did Ray Robinson duck Ike Williams? Was Ike taking out his frustration by ducking Saddler?

it should be some sort of internet rule that ducking cries remain in the same weight class. marvin hagler & Archie moore were ducked. Leonard would have rather entered a Lions den than give Hearns a rematch. But Pryor?

[gilgamesh]

Scared is an overstatement I think, like many other fighters of the era, he just didn't think the Risk/Reward ratio of fighting a guy like Aaron Pryor was worth it.

[Diamond WEAPON]

IKSRTFO.......Grimm, it can't mean anything else.

The only other possibility would be the age old question:

Is Knowing sh-t really that fu--ing ostentatious?

Sweet, I never realized Hector "Macho" Camacho posted on Boxrec. Welcome Macho! Stolen any electronics recently?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Pryor won that fight fairly, it means nothing but he won.

[crusader]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GNR8paIpv8


Here is the fight. Definitely not a robbery. These were the good old amateur days. Where there was no headgear and guys actually stood and fought each other, rather than hitting and running for nine minutes.

[Ambling Alp]

It's amazing how many "fans" really think these fighters fear each other. And the "ducker" is always the greater fighter. Those two methodologies are hair brained on their own, and then when you add them together they make even less sense.

Did Ray Robinson duck Ike Williams? Was Ike taking out his frustration by ducking Saddler?

it should be some sort of internet rule that ducking cries remain in the same weight class. marvin hagler & Archie moore were ducked. Leonard would have rather entered a Lions den than give Hearns a rematch. But Pryor?

I agree with most of this but not the part of Leonard not wanting to fight Hearns again. Leonard would have had no problem giving Hearns a rematch and stopping him again. It was Hearns who moved out of the welterweight class. If Hearns had wanted a rematch so bad he could have remained a welterweight for another year.

Agree with the point that you can't say a guy is ducking someone who is not even in his weight class.
Pryor never beat a welterweight so its hard to say that Leonard ducked him.
There are several guys that said that Robinson should have fought them. Basilio wanted a thrid fight, Giardello wanted Robinson to give him a title shot, other guys wanted Robinson. However, Robinson fought more tough opponents that anyone in his class in his era.
Same with Leonard. People say he should have fought Duran, Hearns, Hagler, Benitez again or Pryor. Why don't these other guys have to fight each other more? Leonard fought more of the top guys in his era than anyone. Yet, like Robinson, Leonard, is accused of ducking people. Makes no sense.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

A year after their first fight leonard had retired and he never fought at Welterweight again. So that point is pretty poor. Hearns wanted an immediate rematch, so did the public, and leonard wanted nothing to do with it.

Hearns also fought more top guys than Leonard. But Leonard fought more than most.

[Ambling Alp]

You are missing my point.
Leonard retired in mid-1982 because of his eye problems. At the time, it did not look like he would ever fight again.

However, Hearns was fighting well above welterweight in December of 1981, less than 3 months after their fight. That was well before Leonard had to retire. (Leonard defended his welterweight title in early 1982.)

Obviously Hearns did not know that Leonard was going to retire. So if Hearns really wanted to fight Leonard again soon, he would have stayed a welterweight. At most he would have only had to have waited a year because he would have been the #1 contender (assuming he did lose to someone else) and would have got a mandatory shot.

That is completely untrue that Leonard wanted no part of a rematch with Hearns. Leonard was not afraid of anyone and his track record proves it. Had Hearns stayed a welterweight and Leonard did not have the eye problems they would have fought at welterweight in 1982. And no, the public really was not screaming for an immediate rematch.