http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/sports/aaron-pryor-boxing-champion-dies-at-60.html 2016-10-11 20:48:38 Aaron Pryor, Boxing Champion Who Defeated Addiction, Dies at 60 Pryor, a junior welterweight, was 39-1 professionally, and memorably battled Alexis Arguello. He later overcame an addiction to cocaine. === Aaron Pryor, whose erratic swings and stances won him the world junior welterweight boxing championship but also mirrored a career-ending struggle with cocaine addiction, died on Sunday at his home in Cincinnati. He was 60. The cause was complications of heart disease, his wife, Frankie Pryor, said in a statement. Pryor went on to overcome his addiction, become a minister and campaign against drug abuse. A barely 5-foot-7 fan favorite, Pryor compiled a 204-16 amateur record, then defeated Antonio Cervantes of Colombia to win the world championship in the 140-pound division in 1980, when he was only 24. Two years later, he survived a punishing 14 rounds in a memorable though Pryor took punches “that would have decapitated most people,” Bill Miller, Arguello’s agent, said. “Pryor not only took them,” The New York Times wrote, “but he answered back in kind in an all-round performance that finally but clearly established him as one of boxing’s biggest stars.” Any lingering doubts about Pryor’s prowess were resolved the next year, when Arguello went down in the 10th round of a scheduled The magazine The Ring declared their first ferocious confrontation in 1982 the “Fight of the Decade” and later the eighth-greatest title fight ever. But haunted in part by the controversy over that fight, Pryor descended into cocaine addiction and was stripped of his title in 1985 for failing to defend it. After his rematch with Arguello, he fought only six times in seven years, ending his career in 1991 with a professional record of 39 wins — including 35 knockouts — and one loss. Pryor was inducted into the Aaron Tonelle Pryor was born on Oct. 20, 1955, in Cincinnati, the son of Isaiah Graves and Sarah Shellery. He was born out of wedlock, never knew his father and was raised mainly by his mother, who drove a school bus to support her seven children. He was given the surname Pryor by his mother, the family said, but it was unclear when. He began boxing his way out of poverty when he was 13. “When I wasn’t running in the morning or spending hours training at the gym, my favorite pastime was listening to boxing matches on the radio,” he wrote in The Cincinnati Enquirer this year after the death of his hero, Muhammad Ali. Beaten for a berth on the 1976 United States Olympic team, a dejected Pryor returned to Cincinnati, where he was met by a lone, loyal friend, Ken Hawk, carrying a 20-foot sign that said, “Welcome Home, Aaron, You’re Still My Champ.” The Hawk became his nickname, “because I swoop down on my opponents,” he said. Pryor turned pro in 1976 under the management of Buddy LaRosa, the founder of a pizzeria chain. During Pryor’s five-year reign as world champion, he made more than $5 million, The Enquirer estimated. After he retired, Pryor became an associate Baptist minister, coached young boxers and defeated his addiction in 1993 “with the determination that made him a great fighter,” according to his website. He went on to crusade against illegal drug use. “While boxing has really helped me, I don’t want to walk around thinking about my last fight,” Pryor told the website In addition to his wife, the former Frankie Banks, he is survived by his sons, Aaron Jr. and Antwan Harris; a daughter, Elizabeth Wagner; and three grandsons. As a youngster, Pryor would sneak into the stockyards and ride the bulls, he told The Times in 1982, just for the thrill. “I was afraid, always afraid I’d get hurt,” he said. “That’s why I did it.” He was frightened each time he fought, too, but the stakes were different. “When a fighter isn’t scared no more, something bad can happen,” he said. “I can lose my title with one punch. What would I be thought of then? It took me so long to get this far, what would I have to do to get here again?”