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Arguello was on course for a record breaking fourth title in four separate weight classes. The bout was the biggest in the history of the junior-welterweight division at that time. The pair split a purse of over three million dollars, a division record.
And what a fight it turned out to be.
Pryor set a frenetic pace, and Arguello had to fight out of his comfort zone just to survive.
The early rounds were all Pryor, but by the half way stage, Arguello was right back in the fight. Pryor had only boxed beyond 10 rounds once before, but Arguello had done so 10 times.
In the 13th, Arguello hit Pryor with the punch of the fight, a booming straight right that rocked Pryor's head so far back, for a split-second he was staring straight up at the ring lights.
And yet, Pryor still stayed on his feet.
Before the 14th round, Pryor´s trainer, Panama Lewis, did something that has gone down in the annals of the great ring controversies.
Rejecting the usual water bottle he had been using on his fighter, he ordered his second to "give me the other one! The one I made up!"
And thus was born the great "black bottle" theory, which is right up there with Roswell and the Grassy Knoll as conspiracies go.
Whatever was in that bottle, Pryor appeared suddenly energized, and stormed out of his corner to wage war. And just over one minute later, an unanswered volley of 24 punches to the head of Arguello left the referee with no alternative but to stop the contest.
Arguello had finished on his feet, but now slumped to the floor.
If ever a man had given his very last ounce for the cause, it was Alexis Arguello that night.
He never really got over that loss, both as a boxer and as a man. There was a rematch with Pryor a year later, and once again it was a huge, action-packed fight, this time ending in a tenth round defeat.
Once again, he had come up short in his quest for his fourth title.
Once again, he had lost to Pryor.
There were two comeback attempts, the first a couple of years later, the second when he was in his 40s.
When he turned his back on boxing, he had compiled an 82-8 record with 65 KOs. He had held three world titles, and probably should held have held four.
To fight fans of the '80s, Arguello was the epitome of class.
He was solid, respectable. Above reproach. But like Micheal Jackson and Farah Fawcett, despite gaining the respect of his peers and the adulation of his fans, his life was beginning to unravel.
When he first quit boxing in the mid-80s, he left Miami and returned to his native Nicaragua.
Arguello took up arms and fought for the US-backed Contra´s against the Sandinistas. Later, he switched sides and joined the Sandinista's.
Disillusioned with retirement, he appears to have sought solace in booze, cocaine, and women.
There have been many, many stories that have appeared over the last 20 years of Arguello and his constant battle against his demons: Many may be lies, but no doubt some were true.
What always made it so hard to read was knowing what a classy human being he had been, and deep inside, still was. He appears to have battled depression for many years.
As long ago as 1985, he told a Sports Illustrated reporter that he had contemplated suicide. Indeed, in the same interview he described how his father had been an alcoholic who had attempted suicide.
Amazingly, he turned his life around. He regained his self respect, and then the respect of others, so much so that late last year he was elected Major of his nation´s capitol, Managua.
For a man who was on the skids just a few years earlier, this should have been all the vindication he would need to see out the rest of his days.
But no.
The demons that had haunted him for most of his life hadn't really left him at all. They were merely sleeping.
And last night, they came to visit him one more time.
Alexis Arguello 1952-2009 R.I.P
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