If you look closer though Chavez achieved nothing at 147lbs and Nelson achieved little at lightweight plus he lost to De La Hoya whether you agree or not. It like claiming Hagler has a win over Leonard while the fight was close Ray got the nod from the judges so you can't count it as a win for Hagler. Chavez win over a prime Meldrick Taylor is the best win in either guys resume.
What win is better not just based on the fighters name but if they were in their prime/ best weight etc.
Probably Whitaker's win over Chavez, seeing as how these are the two fighters we're comparing. Then again, I guess you consider it a draw as well. I score fights how I see them, and as the majority sees them, not how corrupt judges score them.
The fact that Chavez achieved nothing at 147 pounds means nothing. They were the same size as fighters, and both weighed in under the limit, and Chavez was considered the best in the world at the time. It's not like Whitaker had a size advantage on him. The win counts just as it should. Same with Nelson, they were the same size, and Nelson was able to imply his usual style, Whitaker was just too good. That's like saying if Bernard beats Calzaghe it will count for nothing, because Calzaghe has achieved nothing at 175. They are still the same quality fighters. And again, I score the fights how I see them, hence my rankings. Most I know of would score the Chavez fight easily for Whitaker, and most scored the Whitaker fight for Whitaker, according to polls made on this site.
Yes. And that of course was an old, shot, crack-addled Whitaker, who still managed to take 4 rounds fighting Tito's fight.
I do feel that Whitaker won that fight but Chavez was 6 years past his best performance and not at his best weight. The point I was making was the Taylor win was probably the best on either guys resume Meldrick was very highly thought of in his prime, best weight and some could argue put up his best his best performance. You can't say the same about Chavez who was past his prime not at his best weight and looked slow at welterweight. I not trying to take anything away from Whitaker is he an ATG and if I did a top p4p list i'm sure he would be a few spots above Chavez but this thread is discussing purely their resume.
Not to mention Whitaker dropped him with a single bodyshot. Not too bad, even with the fight being a sloppy, kind of ugly one.
............I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating; Chavez weighed in at 142. Had he tried to beef up to 146-147 for this fight, it might have hurt him, but he did the right thing in maintaining a relatively low weight for this fight. He felt he could, since Whitaker himself weighed only 145 I believe, and was a smallish welterweight himself. There was precious little difference in his size for this fight and what he typically weighed in at for his 140 pound title defenses. And Chavez was very much at the top of his game at that time. This wasn't a faded fighter at all. I honestly don't know where you're getting that.
OK TBooze. As has been pointed out, this was basically the same Chavez who'd been dominant at 140 for the past few years, given the fact that he only weighed in at 142. And Whitaker's performance against Chavez was certainly more convincing than Chavez's performance against Taylor. Opinions on resumes can differ, especially when we're dealing with a fighter who was so comically robbed on more than one occasion.
..............No reason to apologize, I may have read it wrong. Not to gang up since you're already debating the issue with Sweetpea, but I don;t think the Gomez comparison really works here. Gomez was indeed at his best at 122 and never impressed at 126, but Chavez was a dominant 140-pounder, and he was only two pounds over that for this fight. A great many people here consider Chavez to be the best junior-welterweight ever; hence, I don't see how he can be considered to be something less than his best at the higher weight (which he stayed at longer than any other). If anything, he seemed stronger at 140, more physically dominant, or at least very much on a par with his deeds at 135. All in the spirit of good banter, of course........
And the other side of the issue is that Whitaker was no natural welterweight himself, so it's not like he was facing a fighter naturally bigger than himself or stronger than himself in any case. And I'll make one other comment, which many may not agree with but say it I will: I think Chavez fought a better fight against Whitaker than he did against Meldrick Taylor, notwithstanding being 3 MORE years past his prime. :good