ATG LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNIE QF 4 - PERNELL WHITAKER TKO14 SAMMY MANDELL

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by McGrain, Jul 3, 2020.



Who will win?

Poll closed Jul 6, 2020.
  1. Mandell

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. Whitaker

    100.0%
  1. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

    108,010
    38,435
    Mar 21, 2007
    Sammy Mandell saw off Packey McFarland in the first round - can he see off the more modern genius Pernell Whitaker, who thrashed Jack McAuliffe?

    Pernell Whitaker, seeded four, is the greatest defensive specialist of whom extensive footage exists, not just at lightweight but in all of boxing. He was also essentially unbeaten at the lightweight limit. Nevertheless, his first encounter with a top lightweight, Jose Luis Ramirez, in 1988, was judged a loss by the professional judges in attendance. It is perhaps the most ridiculous theft ever captured on film; Whitaker was a clear winner.

    His hunt for a strap met with success less than a year later against Greg Haugen, a fight in which he was no less clear a winner but which the judges managed to score correctly. Haugen was tough, illustrated by his reclamation of his trinket against Vinny Paziena over fifteen a year earlier. Before Haugen-Whitaker it was felt that Haugen would have to push Whitaker back, cut off the ring, take him late, drown him in that deeper water. The fight itself could not be more different then envisaged. Whitaker boxed aggressively, right in front of his man, shifting the angles slightly with tiny lateral moves and relying upon those wonderful feet to get him out of trouble (of which there was none) all the while driving Haugen back. Haugen was forlorn, robbed of his fight plan, reduced to pecking forwards with the jab before giving ground in front of Whitaker’s wonderful combinations.

    This may be the most instructive Whitaker performance of all. He did not lose a single round, he established a horrible, clattering jab which he was happy to triple down on while opening up Haugen to the body; if he felt like it he led with the southpaw left, drove Haugen to the ropes, calmly picked his spots.

    The unbeaten Lou Lomeli was the next ranked man to try his luck with Whitaker and the impression that Whitaker gave battering Haugen, namely that he was stiffer puncher than he was being credited for, was underlined by a vicious third round stoppage. Whitaker followed this with vengeance over Ramirez, his audition for recognition as the best jabber in all of boxing. It was another fight in which I did not score his opponent a single round, absurd domination against a world class fighter.

    Freddie Pendleton gave him more problems with that right hand of his in 1990, but Whitaker was clearly the winner, Pendleton sagging by the time of the twelfth and final round before the great Azumah Nelson stepped up to hand Whitaker the nearest thing he would have to a close call at the poundage. Whitaker made this up to us with a single round destruction of the excellent Juan Nazario, who was fresh from an eighth round stoppage of Edwin Rosario but helpless before a primed “Sweet Pea.” Anthony Jones and Poli Diaz won perhaps a single round between them in dropping decisions in title fights before Jorge Paez provided some stiffer resistance in a clear losing effort at which point Whitaker departed the division, leaving all three major belts vacated in his wake.

    Whitaker fought in what was a relatively weak era for lightweights, but he compensated for this in executing the most dominant spell of all the great lightweights. The great ease with which he outclassed ranked men was never repeated, before or since. More than that, he was so good that he was able to do that rarest of things, deconstruct boxing in such a way that it became just another sport. You play basketball, you play football, but you don’t play boxing – unless you are Pernell Whitaker.
    This content is protected


    When Canzoneri first came calling upon the lightweight division in 1929, Sammy Mandell gave him a bloody good hiding for his temerity. It was not a close fight. According to the Associated Press, Mandell gave Canzoneri “the boxing lesson of his life.”

    Jimmy McLarnin was deemed ready for a title shot in 1928 having just obliterated Sid Terris, with whom readers of this series will be familiar. In but a single round, Mandell tore him into pieces, thrashed him blind in what the Associated Press named “the most important lightweight battle in the past five years.” Mandell had reigned for two of those years having taken the title from Rocky Kansas in 1926. Before being matched for the title he had slaughtered a red wall of ranked men, toughs like Jimmy Goodrich, Solly Seeman, Sid Barbarian and Terris, all of whom ranked in the top five at the time of their dispatch.

    Yet, in reading about boxing history it is possible to find tales of McLarnin and Canzoneri – and indeed, even of Petrolle – far more readily than it is to find stories about Sammy Mandell. He is listed neither upon the IBRO all-time top twenty, nor the top twenty-five at Boxing Scene. Having studied the lightweights it is my guess that Mandell is the most underrated of all of them, a true genius of a boxer who has hard to hit, quick to react and held so much poise as to perhaps be labelled liquid. Films show, quite clearly, that he was both faster and a more accurate puncher than McLarnin, at least at lightweight.
    This content is protected


    Who will win under the following rules?

    15 round fight.
    1960s referee.
    8oz boxing gloves.
    10 points must.

    Cast your vote and explain yourself in a post below! You have 3 days.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2020
    Clinton and George Crowcroft like this.
  2. George Crowcroft

    George Crowcroft Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

    26,101
    41,912
    Mar 3, 2019
    Packey losing at the first round is criminal. Whitaker beats him and Mandell.

    That slippery southpaw goodness is too much for 95% of lightweights.
     
    TipNom and Clinton like this.
  3. JohnThomas1

    JohnThomas1 VIP Member Full Member

    47,903
    34,358
    Apr 27, 2005
    Lightweight

    I'll take Whitaker by decision. A bit slicker, a bit tighter.
     
    TipNom, Clinton and George Crowcroft like this.
  4. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

    75,516
    15,572
    Sep 15, 2009
    The thing is Sweet Pea was better at fighting Mandells fight than Mandell was himself.

    He's slicker, quicker, and more agile.

    Very boring and very one sided Pea victory.
     
    TipNom and Clinton like this.
  5. Jester

    Jester Active Member Full Member

    885
    450
    Jul 27, 2014
    Whitaker by clear decision. Mandell would find his strengths neutralized by Whitaker's speed and defense and he'd find himself getting beaten at his own game.
     
    TipNom and Clinton like this.
  6. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

    108,010
    38,435
    Mar 21, 2007
    11 hours remain if anyone wants to attempt a rash rescue attempt on behalf of Mandell.

    Seems odd that he would beat McFarland in the first round but lose in a whitewash to his modern equivalent in the next round, but hey-ho.
     
  7. Clinton

    Clinton Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

    19,619
    5,643
    Jan 22, 2009
    Pea is just a better all arounder and wins a confortable decision
     
  8. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

    108,010
    38,435
    Mar 21, 2007
    Pernell Whitaker scored a fourteenth round stoppage of Sammy Mandell in an unexpectedly dominant performance that saw Sweet Pea arguably win every single round. Mandell, so impressive in the first round in tracking down Packey McFarland, here looked all at see, completely unable to find his man with any sort of sustained attack. Whitaker's southpaw straight tattooed a visibly frustrated Mandell from first to last and short uppercuts on the inside, though not particularly hurtful, bought Whitaker those exchanges too.

    But it was the straight that did the damage in what became a sickening parade of thudding dominance. Whitaker showed no mercy and blasted the sagging Mandell on the ropes in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth rounds before the referee stepped in to end the sad butchery.
     
    lufcrazy likes this.