BoxRec

A prime Aaron Pryor against a prime Sugar Ray Leonard.


What advantages (If any) would Aaron have over Sugar Ray Leonard?


What advantages (If any) would Sugar Ray Leonard have over Aaron Pryor?


What do you see happening in this fight?


How do you see this fight panning out?


Who would win?


Why?

Leonard would have slaughtered Pryor. The only thing Aaron would have bothered Leonard with is his awkward and hectic pace, Ray would have eaten more shots than he was accustomed too but he would have broken Pryor down around the sporadic punishment. Leonard by late stoppage or wide decision. I can't envision any scenario where Pryor wins.

I can't envision ANY scenario where Pryor signs up or shows up for this fight.

Leonard definitely wins it

The only way this would even be competitive would be if maybe you took the Pryor from the first Arguello fight vs. the Leonard from the first Duran fight (provided Leonard fought the same fight as he did vs. Duran). And even then I still don't see Pryor winning. Any other version(s) would be a clear win for Leonard, likely by late round stoppage. I really can't see what Pryor is going to beat him with, he can't outbox him and isn't knocking him out either.

Even if Sugar Ray fights the way he usually fights, I cannot envision someone like the great Aaron Pryor beating him. The question will be if Pryor could handle the welter class. Will Pryor be as fast as his own weight class or will he be a liitle slower. If so, he might need the same speed like in jr welter to beat Leonard. I know for a fact that he would not have the punching power of the greats Roberto Duran or Thomas Hearns. So knocking out Sugar Ray is out of the question.

Pryor from the first Arguello fight could possibly take Leonard from the Camacho fight

The End wrote:Pryor from the first Arguello fight could possibly take Leonard from the Camacho fight

Actually Leonard at one time said that he was confident he would have beaten Pryor but that the Hawk would have given him 15 rounds of Hell.

Maybe SRL is being a tad charitable, as I envision him stopping Pryor in about the 13th round. But I agree with Leonard, it wouldn't have been easy.

Goldust wrote:The only way this would even be competitive would be if maybe you took the Pryor from the first Arguello fight vs. the Leonard from the first Duran fight (provided Leonard fought the same fight as he did vs. Duran).

You mean like how he usually fought?

Pryor cannot win this fight, ever.

He has no advantages over Leonard & is naturally smaller too.

Leonard knocks Pryor out. Not much doubt in my mind about that

For some reason Ray Leonard still doesn't get the credit he deserves.

I was never a huge fan of his during his career, but to deny his accomplishments is hard to understand.

Even his loss to Duran was proof of his greatness. Had he fought a different fight in their first fight he could have won. He did everything wrong and no matter how many times I've watched that fight I see him winning at least seven, and possibly eight rounds in that fight.

He knocked out Thomas Hearns at his peak, he beat the best Wilfred Benitez I've seen, he beat Marvin Hagler (by a hair) in my opinion and he nearly ruined Duran in the rematch.

He won the Olympic gold medal against one of the most feared amateur champions the world has ever seen in Aldama.

He would have easily beaten Cuavas and Pryor as well. He was that good.

His downfall was his eye problems during his prime, and like most, he fought past his prime for the sake of money.

I would bet my house on him against the best welterweights of recent memory, i.e, FMJ, Curry, Whitaker, and anyone else you can mention. He would have schooled Manny, Marquez, and the current crop of welters that we see today.

Argue all you wish against him with your current favorite flavor of the day. I'll take that bet all the way to the bank. He was welterweight perfection, skill, stamina, toughness and pride. I'm not interested in talking about fighters that came before him. Nobody is comparing him to Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong. But my guess is that he would give them hell and defeat most of the very best including Jose Napoles.

Argue away. I'm not buying.

Yep, but he has that same problem Ali has. Someone beat him at his best.
And he has the same claim to fame...he came back and set it straight.

Leonard TKO 7

Syntax Error wrote:Pryor cannot win this fight, ever.

He has no advantages over Leonard & is naturally smaller too.

Agreed.

BoxBuzz wrote:I can't envision ANY scenario where Pryor signs up or shows up for this fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKcIMjktBrU

Esquire wrote:For some reason Ray Leonard still doesn't get the credit he deserves.

he doesn't? on this planet?

probably leonard. but crazy people can do
crazy things and prime pryor was crazy.

man wrote:

Esquire wrote:For some reason Ray Leonard still doesn't get the credit he deserves.

he doesn't? on this planet?

It's a BOTP thing. Here he doesn't get the credit that he should. In the outside world, he generally does. There are fighters that don't get the credit they deserve on the BOTP forum and others that don't elsewhere.

Just curious as to why people believe Pryor wouldn't have taken it? I think he would lose but I don't think he would be afraid

For reasons that never seem to be explained, some people on the BOTP don't think very highly of Pryor as a fighter.

I think Pryor would have lost, but may have made a good fight of it. He was a great fighter and there should be no doubt about that. I certainly don't think he would have been "afraid" to take the fight. He certainly would have taken the fight.

He would have loved to fight Leonard. The misnomer is when people claim that Ray ducked him. That never happened.