“The Fighting Writer” Picks His All Time Favorite Fight: Aaron Pryor Vs Alexis Arguello I

By Tony “The Fighting Writer” Luis

It was November 12, 1982 when boxing fans witnessed one of the greatest fights of all time, between reigning WBA Jr. Welterweight champion, Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor and the late Nicaraguan great Alexis Arguello. On paper, it read Champion Vs Challenger. But everyone knew this was Champion Vs Champion, which made this fight so compelling and an easy sell to the masses tuning in to HBO to watch it. Arguello, 30, at 72-5, 59 KO’s, was coming into this fight seeking to make history by looking to win his fourth world title in as many divisions, after already tearing through a who’s who of contenders and champions at featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight. Pryor, 27, at 31-0, 29 KO’s, was an undefeated young champion looking to make his 6th defense of his world title.

This fight is a tale of one man, Arguello, looking to make history and put the final touches on an already hall of fame-worthy career. He was adored by the masses for his graciousness and humbleness outside the ring, a brilliant yet savage style inside the ring, and a hero and symbol of pride and freedom to his people of Nicaragua. Before Juan Manuel Marquez, before Ricardo Lopez… there was Alexis Arguello. A calm, calculating and effectively brutal operator inside the ring, and a gentleman outside the ring.

While Arguello was fighting for history, in the other corner stood Pryor, an angry young champion who was fighting for respect. He felt shunned by the boxing industry. Despite a stellar record and fan-friendly style, he had yet to be discovered by the casual fans of the sport and had received little media coverage up to this point. Here was a fighter who had soundly beaten Thomas Hearns in the amateurs, but whose career was being overshadowed by the overwhelming popularity of Sugar Ray Leonard and the rest of the ’76 Olympic team who were also making their mark in the pros.

One ’76 gold medalist in particular, the late Howard Davis, who was enjoying much praise and attention, had earned his spot on the US Olympic team by defeating one Aaron Pryor, in a very controversial decision. Hence where much of Pryor’s bitterness stemmed from. Another not-so-well-kept secret in the boxing community, was that Pryor and Leonard had engaged in many gym wars and rumor had it that there were some sessions in which Pryor was giving more then he got. If we want to feed into conspiracies, one could say this was the reason Pryor’s attempts at challenging Sugar Ray to a fight fell on deaf ears.

But, perhaps a more accurate theory was simple economics. Sugar Ray’s career was headed into a different trajectory, one that was making him the highest paid boxer of his time and he was looking to garner fights that could make him the most money. Pryor, despite his ridiculous talent, didn’t have the popularity nor financial upside to entice Leonard to take the fight. This left Pryor, an undefeated young champion, with no career defining fight on his resume, and not one as far as the eye could see in the foreseeable future.

In comes Arguello. A proven champion and future hall of famer, announcing his plan to move up to the junior welterweight ranks to challenge the division’s best, Aaron Pryor, in a bid to make history. For Pryor, it was his long awaited chance at proving he deserved to be considered among the best in the sport and finally get the respect he deserved.

In the lead-up to the fight, right to the ring introductions, it was evident Pryor was entering this fight with a huge chip on his shoulder. It was his chance to flip the bird at the boxing establishment for not giving him his due, and his plan was to take out his frustrations on Arguello. For Arguello, it was business as usual and he seemed relatively unfazed by Pryor’s antics and demeanor.

When fans reminisce of the best first round in boxing, Hagler-Hearns comes to the minds of many. But if any other first round could give it a run for its money, or even surpass it, it was the first round of Arguello-Pryor. Pryor was the hunter, looking to make his point that this was his turf and make Arguello realize it’s a different punch in this new division and was throwing heat-seeking missiles, going for an early knockout. Arguello, though typically methodical in the early going, was caught off-guard yet still all the more content with accommodating Pryor’s bum rushes with his own well timed bombs. The result? Mayhem, which had fans on their feet all night. One thing Pryor and Arguello can say, that Hagler and Hearns cannot..is that these guys didn’t just keep up this pace for 3 rounds. They repeated Round 1- 13.

What ensued was Pryor sweeping the early rounds with his blistering high output attack, forcing Arguello to constantly fight in retreat mode. Though Arguello was gallantly fighting back and having his moments, he was being overwhelmed by Pryor’s speed and pace. However, by the 7th round, Pryor finally began to slow down, and the punches Arguello was landing in between many of Pryor’s combos, were finally starting to take its toll. The middle rounds began looking like a typical Arguello fight, breaking his opponent down with vicious body punches and well-timed right hands upstairs.

However, unlike previous Arguello fights, Pryor was not wilting from the fists of the great Arguello. He was soaking up the punishment and smiling, asking for more. Then fans saw Pryor begin to box and move, a style no one had seen from him yet. His footwork and boxing ability started to dictate the pace and bring him back into the fight and allow him to find the chin of Arguello all too regularly. Though Arguello was still landing hellacious shots of his own, this fight was becoming a case of not who can dish it out better, but who can take it better. Pryor’s chin was holding up to some vicious punishment, with his legs no worse for wear. Whereas, Arguello was starting to wilt, heading into the championship rounds.

It all culminated to a brutal end in round 14. The punches of Pryor finally began to catch up to Arguello, leaving him helpless on the ropes and the referee having to save him from further punishment. Like many great boxing stories, this one does not go without controversy. Before the fight, a man with a weapon, attempted to enter Arguello’s dressing room. He was escorted away by security, and Arguello’s team had Arguello shielded in the shower. The man was later arrested. Playing conspiracy theorist, one must wonder if any of this was linked to Arguello’s refusal to work with the Rebel Army Sandinista, who were attempting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government at the time. 3 years earlier, Arguello was given a Sandinista flag, after his victory over Bazooka Limon, and he draped it over his shoulders while celebrating his victory. However, as time passed, Arguello began to disapprove of the strong-arm tactics of the Sandinista Army, leading him to refuse to help them in their campaign. This resulted in his own mother being evicted from her home, and him having to take his family and flee to Miami, Florida to start a new life.

If that weren’t enough, more odd happenings occured during the fight. Throughout the fight, TV cameras caught Pryor’s trainer Panama Lewis asking for a second water bottle and TV catching him say “the one I mixed”. One could use that as an explanation to Pryor’s unrelenting vigor and energy and tremendous ability to recover from the punches of Arguello. No one will ever know what was in that bottle as the Miami commission was a new commission at the time, and mistakenly never conducted a urine sample for both fighters after the fight. Other boxing insiders will say it wouldn’t have mattered what was in that mysterious bottle, and that Pryor’s mindset that night was in a special place and his desire to prove his worth was not going to be denied on that night.

Neither fighter was the same after the night of November 12, 1982. The controversy surrounding the first fight led to a rematch. The rematch proved to be another exciting fight, but more one-sided and Pryor stopped him even sooner, knocking him down twice before finally stopping him in the tenth round. Pryor would go on to make a few more title defenses before suffering his first loss, against an unassuming opponent. It was later revealed that Pryor was battling cocaine addiction which would shorten his career and not allow him to reach the heights his talent called for. He finished with a 39-1, 35 KO’s ledger. Today, he is a minister.

Arguello would fight again, but also had his battle with cocaine addiction (hey it was the 80’s). After a couple ill -advised comebacks, he finally retired in 1995 with a 77-8, 62 KO’s record. He entered politics in his native Nicaragua. In 2008, he was elected Mayor in Managua, the nation’s capital.

On July 1, 2009, Arguello was found dead. The autopsy concluded it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart. However, some reports have leaked that foul play was involved and he was killed by the highest echelons of the government.

Luis Resto, another fighter trained by Panama Lewis, revealed in a 2009 documentary, that Panama would break apart antihistamine pills, a pharmaceutical drug, and pour the medicine into his water. Resto claimed it gave him greater lung capacity in his fights. One year after Pryor-Arguello 1, Panama Lewis was banned from boxing for life, after being convicted of removing padding from the gloves of Luis Resto in his fight with Billy Collins, which led to the end of Collins’ boxing career. Collins later suffered from depression and would allegedly commit suicide.

Ring magazine named Pryor-Arguello 1 the fight of the decade. Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello are both in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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