The Hawk Aaron Pryor was arguably the greatest light welterweight champion of all time, a relentless pressure fighter who was constantly coming after you, not allowing the time or space to breathe or recuperate. Little wonder Pryor went undefeated until his 37th bout by which time he had come out of retirement and personal issues had already taken effect and that remained the only loss of his career.
Whilst Aaron Pryor is better known for the pressure he always bought, less known was his ability to change angles to continue his attack. Pryor wasn’t just a straight forward pressure fighter coming in a straight line trying to knock your head off, Pryor would use rolling and pivoting to create an angle, making it look like he was punching from every angle possible and literally drowning his opponent in a flood of punches.
In the video below I take a look at one of these methods which was Pryor’s ability to roll to the right. Now why is this important?(and this is also something I have looked at in the past, using El Radar Wilfred Benitez as the example). Firstly, as Pryor was a pressure fighter, he used the roll whilst moving to the right to change the angle and continue his attack, this put him in a position to punch the opponent from where they could not punch him, forcing them to reset their stance whilst defending the attack from Pryor.
Secondly by rolling to the right it meant Pryor would roll under any potential hook coming his way and as the hook is often followed by the cross, by moving to the right not only did Pryor avoid the left hook, but he also avoided the right cross which came behind it. Again if he has made you miss by rolling to the right not only is Pryor in a better position to punch you but by missing your punches you are now open to Pryor’s counter attack.
Aaron Pryor rolled to the right both off his punches, commonly a right hand or without throwing a punch but when the opponent had initiated the attack. An excellent habit to install, watch the video to see The Hawk in action using the roll to the right.