Could Aaron Pryor have beaten Ray Leonard at 147?

I doubt it. Roberto Duran did the improbable when he beat Leonard on points in their first fight but Sugar Ray himself was instrumental in his own defeat by not fighting his own fight and falling into Duran's own type which was akin to a slugfest or dogfight. But if you will review the later parts of their fight, you will readily note that Leonard was able to adjust and he was the one whaling away at Duran but it was too late to overcome Duran's lead.In their rematch it was a mismatch as Leonard went back to his game forcing Duran to quit after being shut out from round one up to the time Duran said no mas.

Though Pryor was similar to Duran physically,he had a different style of fighting relying on a frenetic pace, volume punching and his superior stamina to wear down the opponents, I would say that Duran had better defense and better boxing sense than Pryor and that served him in good stead in his first fight with Sugar Ray.

I just can't see how Pryor's straight come forward, volume punching style style would have been much of a problem for the highly mobile Sugar Ray who also possessed excellent lateral movements to avoid or side step Pryor's rushes. I can't also see how Pryor with that stance of his avoid being tagged repeatedly by Leonard and setting him up for a cut-induced TKO or even a crushing KO.

Leonard by TKO or KO before the 10th of 15 round fight. .

Hello my old friend hope you have been well. This is a match that probably should have happened and would have been a fast paced action packed bout between two great fighters. It's alleged that Leonard avoided Pryor and that Pryor wanted a fight with him. As you know Pryor was a Jr Welter and Leonard a Welterweight so I'm not really sure what that had to play in that as Pryor never did move up in weight to my knowledge and of course started having problems outside of the ring. Aaron Pryor was the most relentless pressure fighter I ever had the pleasure of watching and was very fearless and tough with seemingly boundless energy and stamina and I have no doubt that he would have been a tough fight for Leonard. As you know Sugar Ray Leonard was one of the fastest fighters of all time and a superb all round fighter that could box and mix it up as well when it called for it. So all that being said I believe this would have been a really close fight and very competitive with Pryor applying the pressure and Leonard firing those lightning fast combos and boxing well. But Leonard would have to not get caught up in trying to keep up with the pace of the Hawk and counter him with good clean shots. Leonard would win but he would know he was in a fight.

Leonard Wins by Majority Decision

No. Leonard would have too much speed and finesse for Pryor. Pryor for a brief time in the middle 1980s was the goods. However he self destructed. It is too bad his career went downhill. Leonard as good as he was also had a short lived career as well. At the welterweight limit Leonard would easily decision the Hawk or possibly even a late rounds knockout. Leonard at his peak when he beat Thomas Hearns, was one of the greatest welterweights of all time in the top 3 or 4. Pryor`s best weight, was junior welterweight. This is were he reigned supreme beating Alexis Arguello, twice. The timing was wrong amongst other things.