Aaron Pryor vs Alexis
Arguello, billed as The Battle of the Champions, was a term used by
promoter Bob Arum regarding the light welterweight boxing super match
between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello on November 12, 1982.
The
Fighters
Arguello had previously won three boxing titles (at Featherweight,
Junior Lightweight and Lightweight) and hoped to become the first
boxer ever to win world titles in four divisions by adding the Jr.
Welterweight title. The broadcaster, HBO had televised tow of Arguello's
previous fights. Pryor had no previous telecasts on that network,
despite a record of 31 wins and no losses, with 29 knockouts.
Both
fighters had radically opposing public images. Arguello was suave,
sophisticated, and extremely humble about his impressive accomplishment,
which garnered him great admiration from both the boxing community
and the media. Pryor, on the other hand, was fearsome, intimidating
and, despite possessing great talent and having been a peer of greats
Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, was the recipient of limited
media coverage.
The Fight
The fight was beset with a number of
controversies and odd happenings, the first coming before the bout
started, where a man with a weapon tried to gain access to Arguello's
dressing room. He was stopped by members of the public, and Arguello
was rushed by his handlers into a shower and shielded. The man later
was arrested.
The fight began without further incident. A pattern
quickly emerged, as right from the opening bell Pryor charged recklessly
at Arguello with combinations, while Arguello stood still in the middle
of the ring, Parrying or blocking Pryor's punches while counterattacking
with his trademark precise, hard, straight punches. Both fighters
were hurt in the first round, and watch took the opportunity to punish
each other.
The tone was set for the fight. Pryor tried to increase
the tempo, moving more, punching more, hitting Arguello with slashing
combinations while Arguello stayed true to his strategy, summarized
before the fight as "I don't have to hit him many times in each round,
but I do have to make sure that every time I hit him it hurts", waited
for counterpunching opportunities and used both his own strength and
Pryor's momentum from coming forward to try to make every blow as
explosive and painful as possible. In every round each fighter would
have their high points, and every round became difficult to score.
For a time Pryor looked to be
gaining control of the fight and winning a string of rounds in the
middle of the fight, but Arguello came back in rounds 9 through 11,
particularly in round 11 where he battered Pryor with a number of
very hard shots, seemingly shifting the momentum of the fight in favor
of Arguello. However, controversy would now raise its head for a second
time that evening.
Between rounds it was noticed that a second,
thus far unused water bottle was put into use in Pryor's corner. Pryor
came out with far greater energy in the 12th round, but Arguello attempted
to match him blow for blow. In the 13th round Arguello hit Pryor with
a tremendous punch, easily the hardest blow of the fight, but Pryor
danced away and out of trouble. Once again between rounds Pryor's
notorious cornerman Panama Lewis, well known for cheating and doing
anything to win, could be heard requested the second bottle, and telling
an aide "No, not that one, the one I mixed", when the aide offered
the water bottle that had been used throughout the rest of the fight.
As
in the 12th round, Pryor once again came out with a burst of energy
in the 14th round after Panama Lewis broke another ammonia spirit
under his nose and gave him to drink water mixed with possibly antihistamine
pills to have a longer lung capacity in the later rounds according
to Luis Resto, another Panama Lewis fighter. That happened between
the 13th and the 14th rounds, Panama Lewis gave Pryor to drink that
mixed drink as early as the 2nd round, and this time Arguello could
not answer it. Pryor battered Arguello around the ring for the first
minute of the round, until a hard combination drove a staggering Arguello
to the ropes, where Pryor proceeded to land a grisly series of almost
twenty unanswered punches that nearly sent Arguello out of the ring.
The proud Arguello refused to go down, until Referee Stanley Christodoulou
of South Africa stepped in to stop the fight, a which point Arguello
collapsed to the canvas. His cornermen rushed to his side, afraid
that Arguello had been seriously hurt.