Pryor Finally Gets Go-Ahead, Knocks Out Jones in 3

Aaron Pryor, the former junior welterweight champion, returned to boxing for the first time in 17 months Wednesday night and knocked out Daryl Jones at 1:15 of the third round at Madison, Wis., ending a day which saw the fight canceled and reinstated.

Pryor, who was a champion from 1980-85, knocked Jones down twice in the second round. He then finished off his former sparring partner with a four-punch combination, ending it with a right hand. Jones tried to get up but was counted out.

Pryor, 34, in his first fight since knocking out Herminio Morales in December 1988, has been denied permission to box in four other states--Nevada, New York, New Jersey and California--because of impaired vision in his left eye. He underwent surgery on the eye in January 1988 to repair a detached retina and remove a cataract and is legally blind in the eye.

Wisconsin gave him a tentative OK to box before a state licensing board on Wednesday morning denied promoter Diana Lewis a permit to hold the exhibition.

The board denied the permit because Lewis’ boxing company was not incorporated when she first applied. But a judge overruled the board hours later.