P.M. BRIEFING : Ex-Champ Denies Drug Charges

Former world junior welterweight boxing champion Aaron T. Pryor, 34, has pleaded innocent to drug charges, saying a cocaine pipe police found in his car belongs to a friend who borrowed the vehicle recently.

Police arrested Pryor late Monday and charged him under a city drug paraphernalia ordinance after finding the pipe in the car’s seat. Pryor pleaded innocent to the charge Tuesday in Hamilton County Municipal Court.

Pryor, who has a career record of 37-1 with 33 knockouts, was world champion from 1980 until 1985. Officials took him off the boxing card Jan. 26 after doctors said his left eye was too badly injured to let him fight. Before undergoing eye surgery in January, Pryor said he had overcome a cocaine addiction that crippled comeback attempts in 1986 and 1987.