At lightweight, between these 2 Olympic gold medalists. How well do you think Whitaker would do against the speed and reflex of Davis Jr?
Whitaker would not only school Davis, he'd beat the living **** outta him. Davis was extremely talented, and I feel bad for the fact that he's dying, but the truth is he lacked intangibles. Whitaker would bully him, outclass him, and beat him up.
Whitaker was extremely physically strong. He physically man handled Chavez, which is something that doesn't always get mentioned.
Howard has a good shot of beating Pernell, just as good of a boxer, and way faster than Whitaker. But Pernell angles would give him some serious problems. Either Davis by close UD, or Pernell by close UD, that close.
Whitaker would have nullified nearly all the assests of Davis and would have stopped him, I believe, as he did Diosbelys Hurtado....late in the fight.
I think people on here are underrating Davis Yes, Whitaker would win but it would not be a blowout. Davis was very slick. He would also be 3-4 inches taller and have a reach advantage. Whitaker's unorthodox lefty stance and herky jerky style would frustrate Davis. On the inside, Whitaker would utilize a body attack to slow Davis's movement. During his lightweight heyday, Whitaker rarely knocked out his challengers, the exception being a first round blowout of Nazario. In his prime, Davis was not hard to knockdown, but very hard to stop. In fact, he was never stopped in his prime. He narrowly lost to the big punching Rosario, and would have won the WBC championship if he hadn't gone toe to toe with Rosario in the final round. Whitaker would win a UD something like 9-3 or 8-4.
I don't think he stops Davis. Howard was a fairly durable guy and wasn't handed his first stoppage until he was well past his prime.. And pernell for all his greatness wasn't a big banger... But I can't however see Davis winning four rounds against whitaker. A score of maybe 11 rounds to 1 or 10 rounds to 2 might be doable depending on how serious pea is on a given evening.
Howard Davis was a gifted amateur fighter, but his pro career wasn't all that special at all. Sweet Pea had the speed to neutralize Davis's speed, also Pea fighting from that southpaw stance would would give Davis fits. Don't think Whitaker would stop Davis, but he would win a unanimous dec.
I loved Howard's style and natural abilities but have to disagree with you, he never added cleverness or the next level of skill needed to come close to a great like Pernell. Technically he was short of both those things just like Ali was in his prime, both excelling due to their physical gifts instead. Nothing Howard would do would have escaped Pernell's eye and defense, he wasn't a feinter or clever like Pep in his movements, you could see what he was doing. Over 12 I would expect a 9-3 or 8-4 result at best.
Maybe he was short of some things, but can't see Pernell putting that type of dominance over him. Also, Pernell's speed isn't on Howard's level.
