Was Aaron Pryor the most short changed fighter of recent times?

For me Pryor would wipe the floor with Pacquaio but in his hay day he found it very hard to get the big fights that would have boosted his earning potential. It all started when he failed to make the 76 Olympic team with the likes of the spinks, Ray Leonard and Howard Davis. After that Pryor could not achieve the heights that these fighters who all won gold would go onto achieve. Pryor beat all in front of him but was still a lesser name at 23 and 0. He moved up a weight to face and destroy Antonio Cerventtes and still he was shunned. Pryor tried every trick in the book to market himself (remember "What time is it? Pryor time") but could not secure a marquee name until he met Aguillio. His efforts to fight Leonard in a fight I believe he would have lost came to nothing, he was just not attractive persona wise to the average fight fan. Boxing wise Pryor was overwhelming sort of like Pacman but with bad intentions. He eventually made it to the top but his career should have been more then it was. Not the biggest boxing personality and will go down with the Charley Burleys of this world.

Nice tribute. Exciting fighter but like you say overshadowed by those with media exposure from the Olympics. Not many with his stamina and explosiveness.

He was too close to Charlie and that destroyed him.

Pryor was not the best looking fighter, he looked older then he was and I think it worked against him yet he was a value for money fighter.

Pryor could have moved to Welterweight to try and force a fight with Leonard like Duran did but instead he stayed in his comfort zone

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Pryor could have moved to Welterweight to try and force a fight with Leonard like Duran did but instead he stayed in his comfort zone

He called out Leonard and said he would do that. Leonard didn't want it. High risk and low value.

That's not enough, he never showed a willingness to fight at Welterweight, couple of good victories there and he becomes unavoidable

Nice one, ONETWO.

Pryor never does seem to get his dues, and it's fitting that he should have a moment in the Sun.

Yeah along with McCallum I tend to think they were largely ignored by the big names in the 80s.

Thought he was excellent and would have been a problem for ANY LWW or even WW in my opinion.

Is sadly overlooked now but agree with comments he should have moved up to WW and had some big fights where he could have forced it.

The same as Naz did everything wrong - right!!!

Hitting off the wrong foot, punching off balance but it worked....

Heart, desire, good tank...as well...

Gets a little over criticised for Boxing's biggest s""m bag asking for the black bottle...always going to win anyway....

But considering we had the Don, Mancini, Rosario etc around at that time..inexcusable how his manager/promoter let his career slide...