Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110791
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MILWAUKEE LENGTH: Medium
"I feel great. I have the opportunity to fight again," Pryor said at a sparsely attended news conference.
The fighter said money is not the point. He trained for two weeks in the basement of the home of Diana Lewis, who is promoting his fight in Madison, Wis., next week against Daryl Jones.
"It's the idea that I'm fighting again," Pryor said. "I want to start from the basement of Diana's house and go back to Vegas and Caesar's Palace."
"Even if I'm not 100 percent, 80 percent is more than what you get from the other guy," Pryor said.
Al Moreland, Pryor's trainer, said he was disturbed by calls to ban Pryor from the ring because of impaired vision.
Pryor, who also has a history of drug and personal problems, underwent surgery to remove a cataract and repair a detached retina in January 1988. He has been denied permission to box in Nevada, New York and California.
On Monday, Wisconsin granted Pryor permission to fight after he was examined by an opthalmologist and signed a form releasing the state from liability should he be blinded in the scheduled May 16 eight-round bout with Jones.
The decision to allow Pryor in the ring was made by licensing officials in Wisconsin and produced harsh criticism from boxing circles across the country.
But Moreland says Pryor can still box.
"He's showing a lot of progress," Moreland said. "I'm irritated what I see [in newspapers] about a man with this type of talent. I don't know what all the fuss is about."
During sparring sessions, Moreland said, fighters were "throwing punches with the right hand on the left side and he's hooking away the punches like everybody does."
Pryor said the vision in his left eye is the same that a nearsighted person would have after taking off his glasses. Pryor's vision would improve if he wore a contact lens in his left eye, but he won't.
"I refuse to wear a contact. I want to get used to it. My doctor tells me, `Don't put the contact in until after the fight.' I can see right here," he said feigning punches in close against the head of a reporter.
"But back here," he said taking five steps back, "It's like a person taking his glasses off."
What if he gets hurt Wednesday night in a fight that might produce only a payday of several thousand dollars for a boxer who was a champion for five years?
"I would continue to be drug free, continue to work with children," he said. "It could happen to my other eye and there is nothing wrong with it."
Marlene Cummings, the state's secretary of regulation licensing, said Pryor has permission to fight but the permit for the entire card has not been formally granted. She said the state is checking out the other fighters to make sure, among other things, "they weren't knocked out in the last month."
She said she wasn't concerned about the criticism from other states because Wisconsin has strict laws preventing discrimination against the handicapped - and Pryor has a disability.
"When we make a decision, we look at related law. And when you look at Aaron Pryor, there is nothing in the law that allows us to stop him from going in the ring," she said.
Lewis, who is promoting her first fight, also attended Thursday's news conference. She denied a quote attributed to her this week in which she reportedly said, "If he's blind in one eye, he's still got another eye."
She said she never acknowledged that Pryor was blind and that doctors said he was OK to box.
"The guy who did the surgery said it was successful," she said. "[Sugar Ray] Leonard has been fighting for years since they [other states] turned him down."
by CNB