Читать книгу Sporting Blood. Tales from the Dark Side of Boxing онлайн

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“One time, a dope dealer thought I was so high that he could manipulate me into believing that I owed him $5,000. I argued with him and he pulled a gun on me and started firing at me point blank. I pulled out my own gun and started firing back. In a flash, there were two other guys by his side firing automatic weapons at me. It was a good old Wild West show. The bullets were whizzing by me and putting holes in my car. We must have been only twenty feet from each other. When I emptied my gun, I got in the car and drove off. That was the kind of madness I was living in.”

—Aaron Pryor

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In 1987, more than two years after his last fight, Pryor faced hard-hitting ex-prospect Bobby Joe Young at the Sunrise Musical Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was too much for a disintegrating Pryor. Years of squalor had left him with a gray pallor. His vision, suspect for years, may have deteriorated to the point where he should not have been allowed in the ring. Before the fight began, Pryor had his mouth bloodied in a scuffle with Young's trainer, Tommy Parks. Young scored a knockdown in the first round, staggered Pryor repeatedly, and dropped the ex-champion hard in the seventh with an overhand right. As the referee tolled the mandatory eight-count, a wobbly Pryor dropped to one knee and made the sign of the cross. The referee reached ten.