Where do you rank Pernell Whitaker?

I guess I put less weight on what happens after fighters' primes and I think it matters a lot not just who they fought but when they fought them. And I stand by my original point that Whitaker's victories over Nelson and Chavez were highly significant in terms of his legacy as an ATG given the deserved status of each of his opponents back in 1990 and 1993 respectively and irrespective of Nelson and Chavez fighting Whitaker outside their natural weight classes. But hey, I don't think we're going to agree - no worries. I enjoyed the back and forth on this one!

 

I'm not knowledgeable enough about the history of boxing in that weight range to have a confident opinion, but he's definitely one of the slickest and most gifted defensive fighters I've seen in my lifetime, if not the most.

 

Good post ..

A top five 135 pounder .. an exceptional fighter .. terrific at 140 as well .. 147 was a reach but still a hell of a fighter ..

 

He lost to Oscar De La Hoya at age 33.

 

I rank him top 2 at lightweight .. it's him and someone else be it duran or whomever .. as an all time great he's top 15 reasonably I wouldn't cry if someone put him in the 6-9 region

 

Please. You want him to win about 13 out of 12 rounds? If Tex Cobb was given the decision over Larry Holmes would that count against Holmes?

 

Dubious. The majority of writers at ringside scored the bout for Whitaker and punchstat backed this up.

I would not have any problem at all with someone putting this aside, like the Ramirez disgrace.

 

Writers were split. I thought he lost and so did the judges. It's not in the same category as Ramirez.

 

I had Whitaker losing by a point to Oscar, but that has to count as a moral victory for Pea no matter how you score it for. Oscar wasn't only younger, but it's also hard to believe they were in the same weight class when you see them in the ring together.

Saw someone mention Ramirez as a loss... One should be careful with posts like that, because it will be hard to take such a poster seriously afterwards no matter what he writes. That fight was a highway robbery and the perfect testament to how corrupt the sport was under King. I do think the robbery helped Whitaker be a more entertaining fighter, though. Perhaps Rigo would have benefitted by a robbery like that as well. If the Cordoba fight had been a loss instead of an SD he might have responded in being a bit less safety first, like Pea did.

 

I'm watching that fight right now for the first time since I was a kid, and at the end of round 6 I honestly have to say there's no way Whitaker is winning so far. Oscar is dictating the pace and landing far more solid shots.

He's going to have to really turn it around to even come close to justifying any claims that this was a robbery.

 

And now at 32:32 Whitaker's own corner says plain as day five inches from the camera,
"I'm telling you right now - I'm telling you right now - we're behind in the fight"...

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That's odd because De La Hoya moved up to 147.
I still more or less agree though. By the eye test Oscar looks a full weight class bigger and I think a fighter at that weight is rarely still prime at 33.

 

Whitaker and Oscar were guys who habitually had close fights. If you do that enough times, you end up with a loss. Roy didn't lose a decision in his prime bc he never put his fights in question.

 

The day before weigh-in has definitely made weight classes a relative thing. Pac and Clottey for example... That looked just damn right ridiculous in terms of size difference. Even though Pac was the more recent WW in that case.