By Ken Hissner: There have been few boxers who have retired when they were at the top of their game. So let’s talk about those who have only to come back and lose.
Going back in time, James J “The Boilermaker” Jeffries, 19-0-2, at the time and former heavyweight champ, retired in 1904 unbeaten and was forced to come back in 1920 and had gained over 100 pounds. His pastor on a Sunday said, “we have a coward amongst us who won’t fight again for his race” or something to that effect to fight the first colored champ as they were called back then in Jack “Galveston Giant” Johnson, 49-5-10, the heavyweight champion.
There were 16,528 in attendance in Reno, Nevada, when Jeffries was stopped in the fifteenth round of a scheduled forty-five-round bout.
Another is WBA and IBF Light Welterweight champion Aaron “ Hawk” Pryor from Cincinnati, Ohio. He ended up getting stripped of his titles, possibly due to eye problems.
I thought Pryor got the short end of a decision at the Olympic Trials, losing to Howard Davis, and in an interview with Davis years later, I told him that, and he wasn’t too happy about it.
Pryor was managed by the Pizza King in Cincinnati, Buddy LaRosa.
In August 1980, he knocked out the very talented Colombian Antonio Cervantes for the WBA title. I felt Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran went from 135 to 147 to bypass fighting Cervantes; that’s how good he was. In December, he was offered $500,000 to fight “Sugar” Ray Leonard but wanted more money, so they never fought. I was told by two of the 1976 Olympians that they witnessed at the Pan Am Trials Pryor and Leonard sparring and felt Leonard got the best of him.
In April of 1981, Pryor was offered $750,000 to meet Duran, but his attorney told him to hold off due to getting a new manager so that fight never happened. Like many boxers, Pryor eventually came back due to a lack of funds, and with these two bouts never happening, he may not have come back if he had taken them and won.
In March of 1985, while champion Pryor defended his IBF title and won a split decision over Philadelphia’s Gary Hinton, 23-2-1, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and was 36-0 and retired from boxing.
It would be twenty-nine months later when Pryor would come back and fight Bobby Joe Young, 29-6-1, weighing 148 pounds and was stopped in seven rounds. I remember talking to former champ the cocky Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini about who beat Pryor, and he didn’t think it was Young, so I made a call to someone who had access to a computer and verified it was, and Mancini wasn’t too happy to hear he was wrong.
Pryor would have three fights after his first loss against average opponents, winning all three, retiring for good in December of 1990, 39-1 with 25 stoppages.
I met Pryor years later while in a men’s room in Atlantic City at a boxing event. I just said hello, and that was it.
Those are two of the most notable boxers that come to mind as far as my memory goes back, but there are certainly others.
