And fans in general react to it? Have the opinions changed in recent years? Who was felt to of won it shortly afterwards?
Not really qualified to answer this holistically, but i'll give the information that I have. Press and others in the media that I know thought DLH won: William Detloff, Claude Abrahms, Jim Lampley. Press and others in the media that I know thought Whitaker won: Mike Katz, Al Bernstein, Ron Borges, Steve Farhood, Larry Merchant, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones. Not really a good indication of how the media had it. I know MDWC has told me that ABC and CNN had Whitaker ahead but I'm not sure who was voting there on their behalf. Jim Lampley has said that a ringside poll of scribes after the fight had Whitaker by a slight majority. I don't know what slight means there though. Could mean 1 person it could mean a lot more. How did the fans react to it? Most fans I think were pretty surprised by the wide scores of the fight and felt they were pretty unjustifiable, but most fans felt that it was a close fight that could have gone either way and there wasn't much of a robbery call after it. I think if a poll was conducted with much of the general public that saw the fight included, the majority might have had DLH winning. A pretty comprehensive poll done on the fight here about a year ago with over 100 voters had about 45 percent thinking Whitaker won, 40 percent thinking DLH won and about 15 percent thinking it should have been a draw. I'd dare say that figure would be about right across most boxing forums. Most felt the fight was in any case close enough to warrant a rematch but some were not interested in seeing it again given the tactical nature of the first fight and the likely reproduction of the same result.
