The boxing community was deeply saddened as news spread that one of its greatest and proudest warriors ever had recently joined the ancestors. Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor’s family released a statement Sunday, Oct. 9, indicating that the ring legend passed earlier that day—just a week-and-a-half short of his 61st birthday anniversary—at his Cincinnati home after battling heart disease for several years.
“The Hawk” was a fan favorite during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, when the sweet science was a regular fixture on free network television, before prize fighting became a multimillion dollar entity on pay-per-view.
Pryor was born Oct. 20, 1955, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he began boxing as a youth. He went on to compile an impressive 204-16 record as an amateur, winning the 1973, 132-pound National A.A.U. Championship and the 1975 and 1976 National 132-pound Golden Gloves (outpointing Thomas Hearns in the ’76 finals), and being a 1974 132-pound National AAU finalist. He earned a Silver Medal in the 1975 Pan Am Games at 132 pounds in Mexico City, was a finalist in the 1976 Olympic Trials (132 pounds, being outpointed by eventual Olympic Gold Medalist Howard Davis Jr.) and was outpointed by Davis again in the 1976 132-pound Olympic Box-Offs, which left him as an alternate on the fabled 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing squad that garnered five gold medals.
Pryor turned pro Nov. 12, 1976, with a second-round knockout of Larry Smith, and ran his record to 24-0 (22 KOs)—the lightweight champions avoided him—before challenging the legendary Colombian champion Antonio “Kid Pambele” Cervantes (87-10-3) Aug. 2, 1980, in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum. He took advantage of the opportunity, stopping Cervantes in four rounds.
For the next five years “The Hawk” reigned over the Junior Welterweights Division, defending his titles 11 times, as WBA Junior Welterweight Champ (1980-1983) and IBF Junior Welterweight Champ (1983-1985), cementing his boxing legacy.
His aggressive, unorthodox, nonstop whirlwind attack, throwing punches from various angles with speed, power and precision, thrilled audiences as they chanted “Hawk time!” from ringside.
His two classic battles against ring legend Alexis Arguello helped immortalize both boxers. The first bout occurred in Miami, Fla., Nov. 12, 1982, with Pryor stopping the brave Nicaraguan warrior in the 14th round of a grueling give-and-take war of attrition. In 1990, The Ring Magazine named it “Fight of the Decade,” and in 1996 they ruled it the eighth “greatest title fight of all time.”
Pryor won the rematch Sept. 9, 1983, in another memorable affair, this time by 10th round TKO.
It would be the pinnacle of his ring career. Drug abuse sidetracked him and super-fights against Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Hector “Macho” Camacho never materialized.
“I reached out and certain people did not give me their right hand,” Pryor later recalled of his cocaine addiction. “They gave me drugs.”
He eventually developed eye problems and was denied a boxing license after undergoing surgery on his left eye in January 1988 to remove a cataract and repair a detached retina. He was later declared legally blind in his left eye, with vision of 20/400.
Pryor retired from the ring in 1991 with a record of 39-1 (35 KOs). Five years later, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and the World Boxing Hall of Fame did the same in 2001.
In 1994, The Ring Magazine named Pryor the second greatest Junior Welterweight of all time. In December 1999, The Associated Press voted him as the “Greatest Junior Welterweight of the Century.”
With the same determination and resolve that drove him to become a great fighter, “The Hawk” kicked his habit and rose from the ashes. He later became an ordained deacon at Cincinnati New Friendship Baptist Church and traveled the nation warning others of the perils of narcotics.
He later trained amateur and professional boxers, including his sons Aaron Pryor Jr. and Stephan Pryor .
Pryor is survived by his widow and partner of over a quarter of a century, Frankie Pryor, sons Aaron Jr., Antwan and Stephan, daughter Elizabeth Wagner and three grandsons, Adam, Austin and Aaron Pryor III.
“Aaron was known around the world as ‘The Hawk’ and delighted millions of fans with his aggressive and crowd-pleasing style,” said widow Frankie Pryor in a statement. “To our family, he was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend. We appreciate the outpouring of condolences and sympathy and ask that our family be allowed time to grieve and mourn his loss.”
