On November 12, 1982, Pryor defended his title with a fourteenth
round TKO of Alexis Arguello before a crowd of 23,800 at Miami's Orange
Bowl and a live HBO audience. The fight, dubbed The Battle of The
Champions by promoter Bob Arum, was eventually named the Fight of
the Decade by The Ring.
Pryor made $1.6 million while Arguello
was paid $1.5 million. Arguello, a 12-5 favorite, was attempting to
become the first boxer to win world titles in four weight divisions.
The end of the fight was controversial. Arguello landed a punch
in the thirteenth round that seemed to stun Pryor, and despite trailing
on two of three scorecards, Arguello had things tilting in his direction.
Between the thirteenth and fourteenth rounds, HBO's microphones caught
Pryor's trainer, Panama Lewis, telling cutman Artie Curley, "give
me the other bottle, the one I mixed."
It seemed to revive Pryor.
Coming out quickly for the fourteenth round, Pryor landed a barrage
of unanswered blows before referee Stanley Christodoulou stopped it.
Arguello collapsed to the canvas near the ropes, where he lay for
several minutes.
Many speculated that there was something illegal
in the bottle, but nobody checked the contents and the Miami Boxing
Commission failed to administer post fight urine tests to the boxers.
Lewis and Pryor steadfastly denied that there was anything illegal
in the bottle.
Artie Curley said the bottle contained peppermint
schnapps to settle Pryor's upset stomach. In the 2008 documentary
Assault in the Ring, former Lewis-trained boxer Luis Resto revealed
that Lewis would break apart antihistamine pills and pour the medicine
into his water, giving him greater lung capacity in the later rounds
of a fight.
