Good anology, unheralded greatness. as are Most Floyd albums, and whitaker performances. Which leads me to. I Think maybe part of whitakers underating. If he is underated here which I don't agree with. Is his lack of "epic battles" there is no Halger-Hearns, Sanchez-Gomez, Ali Frazier, Arguello-Pryor on his resume. You can say Chavez, Ramirez, Hoya etc, but not in the same as the above examples. And maybe why he may be overlooked. (the sublime again) Many good fights, many wins against great competition and some controversial loses. But not a linage of signature battles like the above to hang on the mantel per say. and yes he is a maybe the best lightweight ever imho, there is also a guy called Duran. Just a Thought
My criteria for making this arguement was explicitly stated, and it wasn't whether the best posters here rate him properly. The posters you mentioned make it their business to do so and I would not expect them to underate him. Rather, my criteria is whether the other few hundred posters here recognize not only his craft but the puzzle he presents in the weights in which he fought in the h2h sense, which most don't for the reasons I have already stated. Most here understand the h2h potential of a Leonard, a Mayweather, a Pac, or a Duran or Chavez. Yet, Whitaker somehow lives in most posters psyche as something less than what he was. The best posters here understand these qualities, but there is a gap between the perceptions of the top posters here and the general body which I believe to be unique to Whitaker. Thus, my arguement.
First......gawd I love your avatar.... Ok, now that that is out of the way....let me post a better Sweet Pea vid! [yt]yjTHLPmfBCQ[/yt] Any chance I get to watch that vid, I take it!!! Just a phenominal hl reel. :good
you ever wonder why no one laughs at your posts? or your threads? it's cause you're not funny, you're not creative or clever, and you suck. :good
Did you download the HQ version? There are still some grainy clips in there, but overall it looks 100x better. :good
The link is on that youtube page (under "more info" or something like that) but its not an active link anymore. (its a filefront link and it just brings me to the filefront homepage, no download page anymore)
Point Blank......... When I think of the "sweet science", I think of Pernell Whitaker. He dodged punches like dbz.
This is one we'll never agree upon Robbi. To me the Whitaker of the DLH fight was definitely a different fighter to the one of the Chavez fight. There was a large decline in footspeed in particular, together with the lack of fluidity of punches and just the general workrate of Whitaker. The intensity in the Chavez fight wasn't there in the DLH fight. Sure, the DLH fight was more of a technical affair due to DLH's height, reach and power advantages which kept Whitaker extra cautious throughout, but there was more to it than that. I also disagree that he looked fantastic against Vasquez. Whitaker got roughed up that night, and only squeaked by because his jab was on song. He was doing coke on a casual basis from the start, but it didn't become a habit until around the mid 90's I'd say and post DLH, he became a full blown addict.
You definitely have a point. One need only look at the thread which asked the greatest fighter in the last 20 years, which featured Roy Jones getting nearly three times the votes of Whitaker to see that. Whitaker has his loyal band of followers, of which I am one, but still, for many a boxing fan, they haven't come to terms with how great he actually was.
You obviously dont come on here often because i dont no one person who posts on here who doesnt sing Pernells Praises i can sit there for hours watching Pernell fight its facinating to watch someone with that defense,speed,stamina il never forget when he made Ramirez miss 15 punches when he was in the corner and just walked away incredible.