Ike Quartey - One Of The Best Of His Generation?

Well if your arguing for Whitaker I don't really have any kind of problem at all with that.

Trinidad was more of a natural welterweight, and based on quantity at the weight Trinidad could edge Pea. There isn't too much of an argument for Trinidad over Whitaker at 147, but if you were to take into account everything that they did at the weight I personally don't see Whitaker head and shoulders above Trinidad, and I'm a much bigger fan of Pernell than Trinidad. I had Whitaker edging DLH by two points, and I wouldn't argue much against someone suggesting Oscar won, so it's not like he has a clear win over peak DLH to argue in his favor, although to my eyes he did deserve the very close decision.

But point taken, if you want to put Sweet Pea over Trinidad at welter I won't argue.

 

One of the top welters of the era no doubt. I had him beating Oscar, though i think Trinidad would beat him, likely stop him aswell, Ike is too game to trade, a stylistic thing.

 

Ike ws a tough guy and a good fighter but he lacked a final gear against the best guys ... I think he is a level below Oscar, Tito and Shane ...

 

His chin was good, but his fighting heart was even better. Ike didn't lay down for anybody. Not many whilst hurt, would have taken DLH's barrage in the 12th round and stayed to hear the final bell.

 

Thing about Whitaker-DLH of course is that Whitaker was already past his welterweight best by that stage. That he even stayed in the contest with DLH proves that he was on another level at his (welterweight) best.

As for Tito, he struggled at times against a totally shot version of Whitaker. Knowing now that Pea can take his shots, I don't think there's much imagination needed to see Pea outboxing Tito in a fresher, healthier state.

 

Quartey's chin was pretty good, just not great.

 

The 90's welters are an odd bunch to rank. You can't escape controversy.

Whitaker got a draw against Chavez, but almost everyone counts that as a win. Whitaker also defeated McGirt, but McGirt had a bum shoulder. Whitaker lost his title to De la Hoya, but there are a good many that thought Pea was robbed.

Oscar won a questionable decision over Whitaker to gain the title. He eventually won another questionable decision over Quartey. De la Hoya looked as though he was on his way to winning what was the highest profiled non-heavyweight fight of the 90's, when he lost to Felix Trinidad

Trinidad's biggest victory at 147 is what most consider a loss to De la Hoya.

Luckily, you have me to sort this out for you.
1. Whitaker's draw with De la Hoya is almost universally recognized as win by everyone. That "draw" and Whitaker's victories over McGirt are the most decisive wins in this mess.

2. I started to put Quartey here until I went to Boxrec to compare records. I realized that the fastest way to find everyone's record was to go to De la Hoya's page, and pull all the other fighter's records from there. I thought he lost to Quartey, but I'm trying to remain fair. There are an outnumbered, but significant, group of people that feel Oscar did enough to come out without an "L." De la Hoya's resume is better than Ike's, especially if you count the fight with Tito as a win.

3. Ike Quartey deserved a victory over Oscar much more than Trinidad did. I also believe that Espana was better when Quartey faced him than Blocker was when stopped by Trinidad.

4. Trinidad had a great fight with Campas. Campas lost to anyone of note except Marquez. Quartey's win over Phillips impresses me more. At the time, Phillips was regarded by many to be the best active fighter to never win a world title. Trinidad looked very good, but the only big "win" for him was over Oscar.

 

Yeah, Quartey had a good chin, not great though, that willingness and gameness would be his downfall against Trinidad imo, there's no shame there, just purely a stylistic thing

 

Robbi, respect to you for you post and opinion.

I don't think what I said was nonsense because if you Listen to the commentary by Lampley and Merchant, they repeatedly express disbelief at Oscar's inactivity during the fight. Quartey buckled and hurt Delahoya more than once early in the fight before they exchanged knockdowns in the 6th and he was landing the cleaner harder punches.

I will agree with you that Oscar Delahoya stepped up his offense after the 9th round probably because he knew that he was behind in the fight. However, he was NOT the boss in these so called "championship" rounds, and if he did have an advantage, I'd say it was slight. He did win the 12th round convincingly, flooring Quartey, there's no denying that. What I saw mostly in the fight was Quartey throwing a lot of jab and right hand combos.

Will you agree with me though, that Delahoya's comments after the fight were cowardly and shameful? When asked about a possible rematch with Quartey he said "there are bigger and better fights out there for me?" That was wrong for boxing, period.
How is it that Delahoya can demand a rematch with Chavez who he clearly beat, but ignores the opportunity to vindicate himself with a win that was marred with controversy? If this was the 1950's Oscar wouldn't be able to avoid a rematch with Quartey because the fans and the sport itself wouldn't allow it. The rematches with Mosely happened because of money, ego, and Oscar's demands to eradicate the fact that he was outboxed. There was no chickening out by Mosely for a rematch with Delahoya. If Quartey and Delahoya had a rematch clause in their fight contract, I'd bet my money on Oscar to do his best to find a way out of it.

He will never be mentioned in the same sentence as Armstrong, Robinson, LaMotta, Leonard and Duran as the best welterweights of all time IMO. The reasoning is simple because of the gifts he received and his subsequent actions leaving serious questions about his character as a champion.

 

I'm not quite sure what to make of Quartey. He did have very strong performances against DeLaHoya and Forrest, and arguably beat them both (certainly, I thought he beat Forrest).

But at the same time, it seemed that any time he ran up against someone who could match his strength, he showed some clear weaknesses. JL Lopez battered him badly in the late rounds of their fight, and might've won if he'd only summoned the guts to attack Quartey sooner. And Vargas pretty much schooled him IMO.

And officially, he did fall short in almost all his big fights, even if a couple were close/controversial.

In the end, I think the biggest problem with evaluating Quartey is that he lacks a defining win in his career. His legacy is based mostly on "would've"s and "what if"s. It would've been interesting to see what would've happened if he had gotten a shot at Tito or Whitaker. He would've had a good shot at them both IMO, but it's hard to tell.