If the Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. welterweight showdown ever comes off, it will be measured against some of the classic fights in the division?s history. Such as:
Aaron Pryor vs. Alexis Arguello, Nov. 12, 1982 at Miami. OK, this was light welterweight. Close enough.
Pryor was a muscular, finely tuned bundle of kinetic energy. He threw punches nonstop from every conceivable angle, and a few inconceivable angles, too.
Arguello was a former featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight champ of noble bearing and ring generalship.
The bout was a vivid illustration ? over 14 rounds of violent high drama ? of a young athlete just coming into his prime defeating an older athlete a bit past his prime. Ten months later in Las Vegas, Pryor and Arguello staged a rematch, which was really a rerun, only four rounds shorter.
