Today in Boxing History: Aaron Pryor TKOs Alexis Arguello
On this day in 1982, Aaron Pryor successfully defended his WBA Light Welterweight Title with a 14th-round stoppage of Alexis Arguello at Miami’s Orange Bowl.
At the opening bell, Arguello came out collected, while Pryor charged out like a Tasmanian devil. The two traded punches throughout the first three minutes, with Pryor slinging from all directions. Arguello nailed Pryor with a straight right, but just briefly slowed him. At the end of the first round, the two fighters had thrown a total of 238 punches. The two competitively traded throughout the bout. Going into the 14th round, Arguello trailed, 127-124, on two judges’ scorecards and was ahead, 127-125, on the third.
In between the 13th and 14th rounds, HBO microphones caught Pryor’s trainer, Panama Lewis, saying to cutman Artie Curley, “Give me the other bottle, the one I mixed.� Whatever the concoction was, Pryor swallowed it.
When the bell rang to start Round 14, Pryor flew from his corner, and after a few exchanges, knocked Arguello into the ropes with an overhand right. Pryor landed more than 15 unanswered punches before referee Stanley Christodoulou stopped the fight.
So… what was in the mysterious black bottle? According to Curley, it was peppermint schnapps. The night of the fight, Pryor ate a steak at 5:30 and took a nap. Curley said the Schnapps was to settle his stomach.
Arguello’s agent, Bill Miller filed a futile protest with the WBA. Seven months later, Lewis was arrested for removing the padding from Luis Resto’s gloves in a bout with Billy Collins in June of 1983 at Madison Square Garden.
Regardless of the controversy, a rematch was inevitable. When Pryor and Arguello met in Las Vegas in September of 1983, Lewis was on his way to jail, and there was no black bottle. This time around, Arguello quit, after being knocked down in Round 10.