Aaron Pryor

CTL-E-7092 · Person · other · 1955–2016

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07964 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7092.

Aaron Pryor, born October 20, 1955, in Cincinnati, Ohio, fought as 'The Hawk' for the ferocious, swarming style the International Boxing Hall of Fame says earned him the nickname. In his 25th professional fight, in 1980, he rose from a first-round knockdown to stop Antonio Cervantes in the fourth round and win the WBA junior welterweight title, then made five defenses, each by knockout, before his two celebrated fights with Alexis Argüello. Pryor stopped Argüello in the fourteenth round at Miami's Orange Bowl on November 12, 1982, in a bout the Hall records was named Fight of the Year, and stopped him again in ten rounds in their September 9, 1983 rematch. The Hall records that drug addiction cut Pryor's brilliant career short and that eye injuries forced his permanent retirement after several comeback attempts. He finished, as the Hall states his totals, 39-1 with 35 knockouts, his only defeat a 1987 comeback loss to Bobby Joe Young, and he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. Pryor died of heart disease in Cincinnati on October 9, 2016.

The record

• Also known as: Aaron 'The Hawk' Pryor

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0473. Firsts disposition: no standing first is claimed; the Associated Press's 1999 vote naming Pryor the number-one junior welterweight of the 20th century is an attributed honor, carried here rather than in the description. Contested disposition — the 'black bottle' (first Argüello fight, November 12, 1982): HBO microphones recorded trainer Panama Lewis asking cutman Artie Curley for 'the other bottle, the one I mixed' between rounds 13 and 14, and Pryor then stopped Argüello in the 14th. Side one, as BoxRec records it: many speculated the bottle held something illegal, a suspicion strengthened for some by Lewis's later imprisonment for removing padding from Luis Resto's gloves, and by Resto's 2008 account that Lewis broke antihistamine pills into Resto's own water. Side two, as the same record carries it: Lewis and Pryor steadfastly denied anything illegal was in Pryor's bottle, and Curley said it contained peppermint schnapps to settle Pryor's upset stomach. The contents were never checked and the Miami commission administered no post-fight urine tests, so the claim is UNRESOLVED and is never stated as settled in either direction. Identity/variance: this record is Aaron Pryor of Cincinnati only; the bare nickname 'The Hawk' is NOT carried as an alias because the live graph already holds 'The Hawk' as an alias of baseball's Andre Dawson (CTL-E-6818) — the qualified form 'Aaron 'The Hawk' Pryor' is used instead, flagged for the head. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Pryor's record is pressure itself — a champion who won his title off the canvas and defended it by knockout five straight times before the Argüello fights fixed his place in the sport's memory. Photo: CLEARED, Public domain, Bill Apter photograph taken November 12, 1982, whose Commons description names Aaron Pryor vs. Alexis Argüello (World Boxing magazine cover photograph, March 1983 issue); it depicts Pryor with Argüello in the first fight.

Sources

• International Boxing Hall of Fame. "Aaron (The Hawk) Pryor." IBHOF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• The Sweet Science. "Remembering Aaron Pryor." TSS.ib.tv. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• BoxRec. "Aaron Pryor." BoxRec.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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