Aaron Pryor was an American professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 1990.
49 Facts About Aaron Pryor
1.
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Aaron Pryor was a two-time light welterweight world champion, having held the WBA title from 1980 to 1983, and the IBF title from 1984 to 1985.
3.
Aaron Pryor was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996, and in 1999 was voted by the Associated Press as the world's best light welterweight of the 20th century.
4.
Aaron Pryor, nicknamed The Hawk, had a record of 204 wins and 16 losses as an amateur.
5.
Aaron Pryor won the National Amateur Athletic Union Lightweight Championship in 1973.
6.
Aaron Pryor beat future champion Thomas Hearns in the lightweight finals of the 1976 National Golden Gloves, but lost to Howard Davis Jr.
7.
Aaron Pryor participated as an alternate in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
8.
Aaron Pryor finished his amateur career having 220 fights under his belt, with a record of 204 wins, 16 losses.
9.
Aaron Pryor turned professional on November 11,1976, with a second-round knockout of Larry Smith, for which he made $400.
10.
Aaron Pryor fought eight times in 1977, winning all but two by knockout.
11.
Aaron Pryor was knocked down in round one, but he rose and knocked out Cervantes in round four to become champion.
12.
Aaron Pryor made his first title defense on November 22,1980, knocking out Gaetan Hart in the sixth round.
13.
In December 1980, Aaron Pryor rejected an offer of $500,000 to fight Sugar Ray Leonard for the WBC welterweight championship because he wanted more money.
14.
Aaron Pryor signed to fight WBC light-welterweight champion Saoul Mamby in a unification bout for $1 million.
15.
Aaron Pryor was then offered $750,000 to fight Roberto Duran in April 1981, but Aaron Pryor turned it down because his new attorney told him not to sign anything until he worked out a new contract with manager Buddy LaRosa.
16.
On June 27,1981, Aaron Pryor knocked out Lennox Blackmoore in the second round.
17.
Aaron Pryor then defended the title against undefeated Dujuan Johnson on November 14,1981.
18.
Aaron Pryor knocked out Miguel Montilla in the twelfth round on March 21,1982.
19.
Once again, Aaron Pryor was knocked down in the first round but came back to score a sixth-round knockout.
20.
Aaron Pryor signed to face Sugar Ray Leonard for the undisputed welterweight championship in the fall of 1982 for $750,000.
21.
The Sunday before that bout, Aaron Pryor was driving to Buffalo from his Cincinnati home to taunt Leonard and hype their planned bout.
22.
Aaron Pryor heard on his car radio the news that Leonard had sustained a detached retina in his left eye and the fight was off.
23.
On November 12,1982, Aaron 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.
24.
Aaron Pryor made $1.6 million while Arguello was paid $1.5 million.
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Aaron Pryor had a rematch with Arguello at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 9,1983.
26.
Aaron Pryor made a career-high $2.25 million and Arguello made $1.75 million.
27.
Aaron Pryor hired Richie Giachetti to train him, but they had a falling-out.
28.
Two weeks before the Arguello rematch, Aaron Pryor brought in Emanuel Steward as his trainer.
29.
Aaron Pryor was badly staggered towards the end of round two by an Arguello uppercut, but he dropped Arguello with a right cross in the first round and again with a left hook in the fourth.
30.
Aaron Pryor put Arguello down for the count in the tenth round.
31.
Shortly before Aaron Pryor made his comeback, his proposed multimillion-dollar fight with WBA lightweight champion Ray Mancini fell through when Mancini was knocked out by Livingstone Bramble on June 1,1984.
32.
On June 22,1984, Aaron Pryor defended his IBF title against Nick Furlano in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
33.
Aaron Pryor knocked down Furlano twice in the first round but was unable to finish him.
34.
Aaron Pryor defended his title against future IBF light-welterweight champion Gary Hinton on March 2,1985.
35.
Aaron Pryor got off to a sluggish start but came on strong in the second half, winning five of the last seven rounds on the cards of judges Frank Cairo and Phil Newman and all seven on the card of judge Lawrence Wallace.
36.
Aaron Pryor dropped Hinton early in the 14th round with a right to the chin.
37.
In December 1985, Aaron Pryor was stripped of the IBF title for failure to defend.
38.
Aaron Pryor fought welterweight journeyman Bobby Joe Young in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 8,1987.
39.
Aaron Pryor was a shell of his former self and was knocked out in the seventh round.
40.
On December 15,1988, Aaron Pryor scored a third-round knockout of club fighter Hermino Morales in Rochester, New York.
41.
Aaron Pryor entered a no-contest plea to a charge of possessing illegal drug paraphernalia, a pipe used for smoking cocaine, which was found in his car after he was stopped by the police in Cincinnati in September 1989.
42.
Aaron Pryor next fought Darryl Jones on May 16,1990, in Madison, Wisconsin.
43.
The Nevada state medical report declared Aaron Pryor to be legally blind in his left eye.
44.
Aaron Pryor's last fight was on December 4,1990, in Norman, Oklahoma.
45.
Aaron Pryor knocked out unheralded Roger Choate in the seventh round.
46.
Aaron Pryor finally kicked his drug habit in 1993 and remained drug free until his death in 2016.
47.
Aaron Pryor was inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in 1996.
48.
Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor was voted as the Greatest Light Welterweight in boxing history by the Houston Boxing Hall Of Fame in 2014.
49.
Aaron Pryor died on October 9,2016, after developing heart disease.