Pernell’s best weight imo was 140. He’s close to unbeatable H2H at the weight imo. Pryor hits the canvas four times when he falls ass over teakettle from wild missed swings at the ghost of Sweet Pea — “I swear he was right there when I threw the punch,” Pryor will say — and two more times when Pernell catches an off-balance Hawk with counters. Easy-sweet-peasy: Pernell UD over 15, 11 rounds to 3 with 1 even.
P is on my Mount Rushmore at 135; H2H at 140, I think he'd have made easy work of Pryor. We're talking about a guy who was robbed against an undefeated Chavez, whom many consider the greatest at 140 of all time. I think Duran beats P at lightweight and that's it. Very few fighters in history would have given Whitaker any problems. Somebody like Kostya, who could try to time him on the way in, would be more difficult. Or a standoffish, highly technical fighter like Shakur would pick up more rounds than Pryor could against Whitaker, but P was as close to the sweet science as it possibly gets; if he had more power and lived a cleaner life outside the ring, he'd have been virtually unbeatable. Although Pryor had his demons and drug problems too, I don't think he had the ring IQ to give Whitaker any issues.
Pernell Whitaker by decision. He'll be able to control the fight with his jab, counter Pryor's constant aggression, and not allow him to take the fight away from him.
He's a stylistic nightmare for anyone. Way past his best and likely on drugs prime Oscar and Tito could barely hit him ..