Does he lack the resume to be the greatest at 140lbs? A old Cervantes and a blown up Arguello his best wins. Pryor is probably my favourite fighter of all times, H2H A beast at jww? who beats him.
Pryor really was phenomenal in the ring, the most natural fighter I've seen. Let's not forget that Pryor was at 140 winning titles because he was avoided, Golovkin-like, by the champions at 135. Arguello would have beaten almost anybody else in the history of 140 the night he fought Pryor. The shots Alexis landed would have dropped 154 pounders, he was just unlucky to have run in to someone almost superhuman. Pryor is if anything under-rated, his own absolute peak probably came before he fought Arguello, and nobody really thinks he'd have done anything other than win impressively if he'd secured fights against Howard Davis, Ray Mancini, or Jim Watt.
Who beats him? I think Duran would have, better defense, more ferocity. Pryor - Tsyzu would have been a great fight. Pryor - Chavez would be another great fight. Pryor - Mayweather..hmm probably lean towards Pryor being the busier fighter. But the list of fighters who would have beaten a prime Pryor is small. (but I sometimes can't get over the PED issue)
I think he's right up there with the best 140 lb champions. He did have a tendency to be dropped by mediocre fighters but always got up to win. The first Arguello fight with the "black bottle" did look suspicious. Pryor got hit with some bombs in the 13th round, drank from the bottle, then suddenly couldn't miss a punch in the 14th round. Still, he was a great fighter for a short period of time.