How highly thought of was 'Sweet Pea'..

I think it was the general consensus that he was the best defensive fighter of his time.

 

Unless I'm mistaken contemporary attitudes were almost identical to how people view Mayweather today.

Many didn't like his brash persona, nor his largely defensive style.

Purists appreciated him and cited him as the p4p best or close to it for much of his prime.

 

I don't know what the consensus was for him during his time I was born in 1993... But I can honestly say I've watched about as much boxing footage as humanly possible in the last 5 years and stuided mostly all the greats and I feel Whitaker at his best was about as good as ANY of them, he had tremendous skills. Not only that he was a great performer in the ring he may not have been the heaviest puncher but he wasn't just a defensive fighter he threw very good punches in combination to the body and head and though he didn't knock a lot of his opponents out he gave most of them good whoopings. Another thing that can be said about Whitaker is that he fought many very talented fighters had he faced more less skilled opponents while on the come up I believe his knockout record would've been much better.

 

He was very highly thought of. But I knew many who didn't enjoy watching him fight.

 

Probably not highly enough, now we have the benefit of hindsight.

 

Pernell Whitaker was the best of the 84 Olympians and the best all time pound for pound fighter in the world between Ray Leonard and Floyd Mayweather for sure, possibly even better than Floyd.

 

I could hardly stand to watch Pernell fight.

 

Great boxer, never captured the public's imagination.

He did well to earn a draw with the great Julio.

 

Not popular with the casuals who wanted blood and guts, but anyone who knew anything about boxing regarded him as the best of his generation.

I mean, he fought top-notch competition and rarely lost a round.

In my lifetime he's probably the single best P4P ... and I'm 51 years old.

 

This statement is true.

 

Brilliant fighter. Magic in the ring

 

He did well ? He was blatantly robbed of a clear decision by the crooked alphabets just like he was robbed in the first Ramirez fight .. the cover of Sports Illustrated for the Whitaker - Chavez fight boldly stated "ROBBED" !

 

He was robbed against Ramirez the first time and against Chavez. He did not lose a legitimate decision from 1984 to 1997. He won titles in four weight classes. Up until drugs became an issue in his mid thirties he hardly lost a round in his entire career .. Yeah, I guess he was no big deal .

 

Great fighter and had the P4P title for a short period between the Chavez robbery and the Rivera fight.

The only thing i will say is that his win over Nelson and the robbery are both very overrated because Chavez and Nelson both came up in weight to fight him.