Arguello Always Seemed to Be a Step or So BEHIND Pryor, Due to the Discrepancy in SPEED... Pryor's Angles, Feints, Handspeed and Combinations Kept Arguello Second Guessing Virtually All Fight Looooooooooong....Meldrick Taylor was a GOOD Bit Quicker of Hand and Foot than Pryor, Not to Mention Naturally BIGGER than the "Hawk"...He Would Trouble Arguello for Many of the Same Reasons Pryor Did... Taylor was More HITTABLE than his Talent Warranted and Arguello WOULD Land Some Meaty Counters Here and There, but it's HARD Envisioning Arguello Beating Taylor @ 140...Arguello WASN'T as Durable as Chavez Was, @ The Weight...Taylor STOPS him Late or Wins a WIDE UD... REED:hammert:
I think Taylor was more comfortable at 140 than the thin man was and so I'd pick him. LW or lower I'd obviously pick Arguello
People say Arguello wasn't comfortable at 140. I seem to remember him going life and death with arguably the best 140lbder of all time for 14 violent rounds. No guarantees that Taylor could take those punches for 12 rounds and highly unlikely that Taylor stops him seeing how long it took Pryor to do it. Having said all of that, Taylor was faaaaast and busy and so he'd keep the thin man honest the way he kept Chavez for most of their fight. It's a goooooood fight
I don't think taylor was quicker of foot than Pryor or as fluid/mobile a boxer. And Arguello was a bad motherfucker. He wears him down and knocks him cold!
I think Arguello was better at 140 than people give him credit for. He destruction of Rooney was one of the top 5 best performances of his career. He just happened to run into a great fighter in Pryor. Taylor had the ABILITY to beat Arguello by outboxing him. But knowing Taylor's mentality, would I bet on it? No. I could see Taylor up on the cards, then progressively getting hit more and more before Arguello finishes him off late.
Good fight. Gun to my head i like Taylor superior speed to carry the day, but i could also see him being too hittable against a puncher like Arguello
Kinda random comment but I've always thought there was something about arguello's punches that looked especially painful like they seemed to dig into guys flesh in a really sickening way.....some guys it looks like getting hit by a 2x4; getting hit by arguello looked like getting hit by a little hammer. Like you've still got enough of your senses about you to feel it. Not sure that makes any sense
Landing on Rooney it sounded like Rooney was getting hit with a lead pipe. Unnatural for a 130-140 pounder's punches to sound like Arguello's.
Arguello losing to Pryor doesn't really mean he wasn't a very good 140 lb. fighter in his own right. The brutal first fight and the long career caught up to Arguello, but I can see Arguello pulling off a late stoppage against Taylor. Taylor was super fast but not the greatest defensive fighter. He defensive reflexes weren't close to his blistering hand speed, and I think his lack of discipline will cost him dearly. I think he would try to trade too much, and get stopped late.
If Taylor is not getting any bottle of water with a mix, I'll give this one to Arguello. To me more intriguing was if instead of Pryor, Arguello had fought the other long reigning champ, Saoul Mamby. I am sure Alexis would have stopped him, so why Alexis didn't go for the 'easy one' first, grab a belt, make history and then go for a superlucrative unification bout with Pryor? :dunno:
I would've bet 10,000 bucks that Alexis doesn't stop Mamby who was durable as fuck, tough and crafty as hell and didn't get stopped in a fight until he was 46 years old and had been a pro for nearly 24 years
