Whitaker at his best and most slippery vs the jab and deadly left hook of De La Hoya. Classic opinion and analysis please.
Really though there aren't many fighters I'd take over Whitaker at lightweight. Oscar was pretty green there. Hell he was relatively green when they did actually fight. His jab was superb and he did have an excellent set of whiskers and I think he'd control the tempo of the fight from the start. Whitaker UD.
prefer pernell. slick, vetrancy, speed that made him all danger. the hieght of oscar is pretty much null and void becuase the way he fights as a pressure fighter with a long jab and left hook to me just leaves him a bit open.
Seriously. Sure he got bigger and stronger, but p4p he peaked at 140. He couldn't boss the top welterweights around like he could the smaller blokes. Really, he shouldn't have moved up to 147 until 2000.
He bossed the #2 welterweight worse than tito's dad in the corner when he needed to smack him around.
You mean after he desperately needed to after fighting scared for the majority of the fight... Can you see DLH arguably losing to an 140 pound version of Ike? I can't....
Whitaker all the way, this is a somewhat green Oscar and a Peak Whitaker Yes, Quartey's skill beat him not his size, Oscar was actually bigger in the ring, he just never fought anyone like Quartey before
Skills played a big factor, no question, but I think Quartey's size and strength kept DLH gun shy as well. I simply can't see the same thing happening at 140, where DLH was more natural at the weight. Sure he might have been 'bigger' than Quartey at welterweight in terms of weight, but not in terms of natural body composition. The fight happens at 140 and Ike gets KO'ed more often than not. Oscar would get bossed around by big natural welterweights, but not at 140....
Well obviously Whitaker is the warm favourite since he peaked at this weight and De La Hoya was just a pup when he competed there. But I will say De La Hoya would be a genuine handful for any other lightweight you care to name (maybe Duran excepted). He was tall for the weight, mobile,skilled, had quick hands and his power at 135 was brutal. The way he crushed Ruelas, squashed Paez, destroyed Leija and broke down and out boxed Hernandez was very impressive. His power dissipated the more he rose in weight but at Lightweight it was for real and for a little while was spectacular. It wouldn't matter against Pernell who was just a tremendous defensive fighter, who also happened to possess a very high workrate and punch out-put and would no doubt be too sharp for Oscar and take a close but clear UD. But this is a very,very good match up.