Pernell Whitaker's ATG ranking at Lightweight

I might have seen jimmy Carter in the early part of his career in NY. He was considered a very good trial horse,something like the bigger Tiger Jones, but when given a shot at the title ,he rose to the occasion. When
trying ,Jimmy Carter was a VERY good all around banger,tough and rugged, but was an in and outer fighter, who would have fun today at 135lbs.Cheers...

 

Well burt, even if Armstrong hadn't been taking matches at that pace and intensity, don't you reckon he'd be burnt out by his style and party lifestyle anyway?

 

its too strong of a list to have him number 1 IMO.

Duran
Leonard
Gans
Pea

 

There's been plenty of lightweights with better lightweight wins resumes than Whitaker:

Joe Gans
Roberto Duran
Benny Leonard
Barney Ross
Ike Williams
Henry Armstrong
Lou Ambers
Tony Canzoneri
Carlos Ortiz
Beau Jack
Freddie Welsh
Sammy Mandell
Sammy Angott
Bob Montgomery
Wille Joyce
Ken Buchanan
Ismael Laguna
Jimmy Carter
Johnny Dundee

There's probably at least another handful to add to that too.


If you bring in Whitaker's h2h ability and his level of dominance into the equation he could maybe make a top 5.

 

I think the head to head is the thought of this post. While I see Laguna at his best able to squeek in some of those very fast leads and the win, Buchanan would be picked off more and didn't have quite Ismael's speed and loses by a close margin. Ike was such intense a fighter with great skill, I just don't know if Pea's top of the line defensive skills would bring him the win. In many of the matchups with the above Pea could be given the odds, and with the top three you could make an argument for him also although I would go with the icons from the past.

 

Whitaker matches up beautifully with Williams.