Why mention a fight where Whitaker still won and pretty easily Big Flea? He was naturally bigger than Pep, no argument there, and he was a great fighter. How does beating a fighter in a weight division below you show any p4p superiority. If anything, beating guys bigger than you matter more than lighter than you.
Except Ortiz himself had beaten many quality fighters bigger than him. And it shows you can beat someone who should be naturally quicker than you also.
Fights aside an unsophisticated herky jerky Saddler walked him down when he was only 26, post plane back ache or not. A bigger LW version of Saddler never beats Whitaker in 1000 years
Whitaker is widely acknowledged by everyone as a small WW. So what if he put on a couple of pounds at WW when most put on 10 or 15lbs? Even back then the bigger guys were doing that. The big WWs were way bigger than him as obviously was Vasquez. Whitaker could go up and handle bigger fighters, Pep couldn't.