You've clearly stated that you can't actually understand how anyone would give either opponent the win. I've given my reasons for considering it a clear Whitaker win. If you choose to score that way, that's your criteria, though I personally don't give much credit to 10 punch combinations that hit nothing but air.:good
Oscar's punches weren't effective? I didn't see more than 5 punches from whitaker that had any effect on oscar...Oscar landed 20+ big shots.
Whitaker by two points. Close fight, and Oscar did land the harder shots, but they were few and far between and he never really hurt Pea, which isn't enough to overcome Pernell throwing more, landing more, higher connect percentage. He was in control for most of the fight IMO.
[yt]jS0CZRZtwaw[/yt] And so did Whitakers goofy antics see min 3:23! My impression before the fight was that the young DLH was way over his head against a defensive wizard like Pea. My impression after the fight, DLH deserved no worse than a tie. Whitaker failed to impress me as definitely being the better fighter that night! And for the record, primed or not, Whitaker/DLH would have always been a close fight!
So after Whitaker struggled with Diosbelys Hurtado and Wilfredo Rivera you thought that DLH was going to be way over his head? Did you not follow boxing at the time? DLH was a 3-1 favourite going into the fight. And no, DLH-Whitaker would not have been a close fight in Whitaker's prime, especially at 135.
Oscar won that fight with Whitaker but I totally disagreed with the judges score cards. Thay had Oscar up by so many points which was ridiculous.
Call me crazy but a young DLH going into uncharted territory(147) where Pea had reigned for quite a while did give me some doubts. But don't tell me, you must be one of the few who had a crystal ball and knew exactly what was going to happen! And Yes, even at 135, DLH/Whitaker would have been a close fight, don't let Whitaker's victory over Azumah Nelson fool you!:deal
Oscar would've been schooled at 135. Too green against a prime Pea does not bode well for someone who arguably lost to a past prime Pea during his own prime.
There was no crystal ball needed to know that Whitaker had looked like **** in the last 18 months and that DLH was slicing through opponents like they were nothing. Moving up to 147 wasn't really an issue because Whitaker was about as small a welterweight as you could get, and as you saw in the fight, DLH actually looked more like a welterweight than what Whitaker did. Thinking DLH was going to be in over his head wasn't a realistic expectation. You might have thought that, but nothing really points to it as far as I'm concerned.