Where would YOU place Pernell whitaker in the ATG rankings?

No, no-one deserved the win over the other in that fight, a draw would have been best but DLH got the decision so he won.

For the record I think prime Whitaker beats DLH & I rank him way higher in a p4p ATG sense.... but he defo wasnt `robbed` in that fight, even if you felt he edged it.

 

Yes a draw would of been fair. That's how I saw it. Oscar outlanded him and was the aggressor, while Sweet Pea threw more and a knockdown of Oscar was ruled a slip. But I think with the knockdown it should of been a draw. A rematch would of been nice, but if Oscar won many would say Sweet Pea was past his best, which he was. And if Sweet Pea won, Oscar's aura of invincibility would of been thrashed and the superfight with Trinidad wouldn't of had had as much interest.

 

Top 10 all time. Unbeatable from 135-140

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVPXllSAJ6g[/ame]

 

he did get one knock down, and that was pretty. Oscar tried getting cute and Whitaker capitalized.

 

FWIW, the IBRO which is a boxing historian research group, ranks Whitaker 7th on the ATG lightweight list, and 17th on the welterweight list, but he's not on their list of top 20 ATG p4p fighters, nor is he mentioned in the 12 others who just missed the cut. so they obviously rank him above 32 on the ATG p4p list. As for myself, even though I don't always agree with the collective wisdom of that group I have to think he ranks somewhere between 30-40. Hard to say, given so many great fighters over the years. I think he ranks lower than Pac but higher than Floyd, as things stand at the moment.

And for those who are interested, this is there list of the top 20 as of 2006.

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This is ridiculous. Mayweather's not in the top 30 at the moment never mind top 5, and Whitaker is no where near top 5, a case could be made for top 20 but that's about it.

Burley isn't top 5 either, Greb, Sam Langford, Duran, Louis, are all higher by a good margin.

 

Personally I feel that Eder Jofre (while he may be the greatest bantam ever), Jimmy Wilde, Jack Dempsey are always way too high on these lists.

 

I think Dempsey gets a lot of credit for his pre title achievements, his actual defense of his title was nothing special. But the way he beat Willard, and the number of 1st round knockouts on his resume, are both extremely impressive.

More impressive, and not much to do with his ring achievements, is what he did for boxing at the time. Boxing facilities holding over 100,000 people were basically built just for him. Particularly when he fought Tunney both times, the attendence was 100K+ for both fights and at his peak he made multiple times more $$ than Babe Ruth did. Some could even argue that the sport of boxing peaked during his reign. Certainly from an inflation adjusted gate receipt perspective it probably did.

 

Behind Manny Pacquiao...

QFT!!

 

I don't see the relevance on him as a fighter in a lot of this. I would personally never have Jack Dempsey or Jack Johnson above the likes of Tony Canzoneri. I really can't see them as even close, to be honest.

 

I never got what was so impressive about willard he had a 22-3 record coming in and was just a tall freak, nothing special. Yet everyone always act like this is some genius brutal beatdown against a fantastic fighter.

 

He probably just makes the cut for top 20. As far as H2H rating goes, he's in with the absolute best ever.

 

top 20. Like JMM, he got robbed of some early decisions and still went on to beat fighters much bigger than him and I mean very good fighters like Roger Mayweather and Julio Cesar Vasquez, the same champion that floored an up and coming Winky Wright. Of course, Sweet Pea's greatest and career defining fight was the draw against Julio Cesar Chavez, which he got robbed of. Sweet Pea and JMM need to start a club or something.

 

Youre right, it shouldnt be relevant, but I think Vanboxing did a great job of explaining WHY many people hold him in such reverance. Good posts guys.

 

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