It takes Whitaker a while to get Pryor under control, but he does in time to win the majority of the rounds.
Whitaker as Whitaker can take advantage of Pryor's mistakes as he will have Pryor figured out in the latter rounds and thus control the pace of the fight - Pryor loves pace...just not happening against Whitaker!
I'm not sure that Pete needs to slow down the fight. It's a dangerous game because Pryor is that much stronger coming forward than Pete is going back. Pete will probably tackle Pryor's relentlessness in a similar fashion to Nelson. Busy jab, give him angles, use his excellent radar and squat type defense and reflexes to offset Pryor's punches in bunches. I think Pryor's attack is too uneducated and ill-disciplined to perilously trouble a peak Pete, who boxes so well on the backfoot, is too good with the jab and does have a very good inside game, both defensively and offensively. Pernell is NOT getting swarmed to surrender like Arguello did, because his feet were too quick and his defense was too good, likewise, his offensive output was too busy ... Pryor can walk through the punches as Pernell isn't knocking him out, but his movement, stamina and output combined would be that tad too much for Pryor IMO. I do think that Pryor's best chances do lie with mysterious black bottles, trying to outmaneuver Pete into corners and onto ropes and/or timing when Pete crosses his feet going backwards for a knockdown. Unfortunately, I do not think that Pryor can outwork Pete, whose chin is too good to see him knocked out in this one, and work rate and stamina, at his best, is too consistent for the unorthodox Pryor.
