I re-watched & scored Whitaker v Chavez !

"The commentators hated Chavez"

Pacheco had it even going into the 11th IIRC.

 

Little more than a year before the fight Whitaker was a lightweight and was easily making the weight. It's not like he was a natural welterweight in there against Chavez. You can talk all you want about the weights but really, all you need to do is view the shape of both guys in the ring. Whitaker looked maybe slightly bigger but it was negligible.

And the welterweight Whitaker beat to take the title was a natural junior welterweight boxer, hardly a massive fighter.

I agree the strength deferential would have tilted more in Chavez favour at lower weights, but he did such a poor job of even forcing Whitaker into clinches that it's hard to see him getting anything done through his strength at lower weights anyway.

Ring generalship was pretty consistent from about round 3 to 11 I'd say - all Whitaker.

If you think both have a case for defense, then I won't try and tell you any different. What would be the point?

It was kind of boring only if you were expecting Chavez to do something. You would have been waiting all night.

Chavez came out against Whitaker as intense as he had against any fighter in his career. He was trying to be ferocious, which he hardly ever does early on. People try and act like Chavez's speed was much greater at the lower weights but I reckon that's bull****. He put in a massive effort against Whitaker and no one said anything about him being old or slow or above weight until it was obvious he was losing the fight. The commentators were in a circle jerk at the start of the fight talking about how 'up' Chavez was for the fight and how aggressive and intense he was and how Whitaker was in for a long night.

Listen to the ESPN call for a fairer view

 

Very poor scoring

 

Close score to mine:

Whitaker - Chavez

1 10-9
2 9-10
3 10-9
4 10-9
5 9-10
6 10-9
7 10-9
8 10-9
9 9-10
10 10-9
11 10-9
12 9-10

116-112 Whitaker

 

I had it 118-113 for Whitaker and felt I was somewhat generous to JCC. The fight really wasn't close. Whitaker boxed the **** out of him.

I also had Pea beating Rivera in their first fight 116-114, but every round was close and I wouldn't see it as unreasonable for anyone to have Rivera winning by a couple of points.