Later in his career, when he planted his feet more, he hurt fighters more and knocked down Rivera and stopped Hurtardo. He even seemed to hurt Trinidad when he went to his body in their fight. In his prime, if he wasn't moving so much and throwing punches for points, would he have had more kos?
Underrated? No , but he was respectable enough to keep aggressive fighters like Chavez and Ramirez honest. They didn't just walk through his shots as they may have done someone like Howard Davis Jr , if they had fought him.
He showed that he could bang occasionally when the right openings were there. But I don’t think he was a big puncher nor unduly overlooked as one. Pernell was a pure boxer. That’s about all
He's a much harder puncher than most people think. They were sharp and stinging when they landed cleanly. And he was also a hurtful body puncher as well.
Underrated body puncher, perhaps. McGirt in particular has talked about how people never seem to realise what a hurtful body puncher Pea was. When Whitaker bent those knees and whipped the body shots he could do some damage. Nothing more than a serviceable puncher overall though, even at Lightweight.
Ditto here, but I suppose it should also be noted that Whitaker fought a very high caliber of opponent almost from the very first. Anyone's KO percentage would suffer having to fight that many really good opponents. Give him 100 Louie Lomelis and he runs the tables on them in Liston-like fashion.
Incidentally Louie Lomeli was a fun fighter to watch. My cousin worked with the teamsters with Lomeli and used to talk to him.
He was underrated in the sense he could really dig into the body and if you go to the body correctly you don't have to be a tremendous puncher.
This is a very important point SS, and a great one! Sometimes ( Most?) The fighters level of competition is the primary reason if they are getting Ko's. Whitaker 7th pro fight he was in with a fighter like John Montes. No one great but a seasoned well schooled fighter in his prime. By his 10th fight he's in with R. Mayweather. That type of competition would be considered insane that early by the babied , cuddled, protected fighters in today's game. Hell , some of the" World Champs " in the game today haven't seen that level of competition period.
Not to mention tough trialhorses Rafael Williams and former champ Alfredo Layne. He was matched tough.
I’ll ask him. The two of them worked for the chicago teamsters together back in the late nineties early two thousands. This was after Lomeli’s career was more or less over. Cousin left them to work for the TSA at chicago O’Hare airport. Lomeli was from Melrose park.
Julio Cesar Chavez was not really a big puncher, but he scored knockouts because he pressured and seeked them. I would say Whitaker punched just as hard if not harder than Julio Cesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor but he's stereotyped as a non puncher simply because he fought mostly "safety first." Its not just Pernell Whitaker, defensive fighters who avoid getting hit do so because they dont offer a power effort into their own punching.