i have seen freddie pendelton fight, vince phillips, jorge paez, pernell whitaker and rafael ruelas, even in losing efforts freddie has to be one of the most complete fighters that i have seen as a lightweight. he was strong, cagey, very good legs and pretty fast hands, very good power especially in his looping right, could both stalk or box and could fight at both long and short range very well but aside from that he had a amature record of 1win and 5 losses and his spotty record is legendary i cant find a weakness in his abilty and that says alot in regards most great fighters have at least on weakness, so what did freddie lack which made him lose so often?
His record during his peak years (86-93) was quite good. He only had 4 losses during that time, one being to Pernell Whitaker (in one of the more competitive fights in Pernell's career) and another being to John Montes in a fight he was winning before getting caught and stopped. I think three things kept Freddie from being an elite fighter. The first was his predictability. He was too righthand-happy and didn't add a lot of variety to his attack. That leads to his second weakness. He didn't have a good left hand to rely on. Hence his attack being limited. But his third, and biggest flaw imo was his temprament. He would get carried away with his right hand power and neglect his defence and his boxing fundamentals. If he didn't manage to land the knock out shot he would end up giving away rounds being sloppy and getting outboxed, so he was always liable to lose a decision.
Finally somebody brings up one of my alltime favorites!Pendleton had a very interesting career.In the begining of his career he would just try to survive and go the distance and not get stopped.But always he would somehow stun the opponent but then not wanting to take any chances he would get back on his biycycle and move. He had Hilmer Kenty in trouble a couple of times and if he would have stepped on the gas he would have stopped Kenty. He took a bout with unbeaten Tyrone Trice on 1 days notice and stopped Trice in 1 round. Pendleton stunned Jimmy Paul as well in Pauls decision victory over Pendleton. The problem is that Pendleton fell inlove with his righthand power.If he would have mixed his considerable boxing skills with his power you probably would be talking about how great Pendleton was. The shame of it was when Pendleton wanted to he could really box. Check out his second bout with Spann. As for the Montes bout that was a case of Pendleton having no respect for Montes.Early in the bout Pendleton dropped Montes but as the rounds progressed Pendleton got more and more tired until Montes caught up with him in the 10th. Pendleton wasn't the best when it came to training and this is probably what kept Pendleton from being considered a great boxer. He had Ruelas down 2/3 times in there bout only to become fatigued latter in that bout. De La Hoya supposdely did not want to fight Pendleton.And I tell you Pendleton would have taken De La Hoya out! By the time Pendleton reached the title he was a little past his prime.He also became too cocky with his power and didn't really train like he should have. Some bouts you should check out: Pendleton vs Adolpho Medal Joe Manly Sammy Fuentes Steve Larrimore 1 Pernell Whitaker Tracy Spann 2 Jorge Paez Shelton Leblanc Frankie Randall 2 Ronald Haynes Livingstone Bramble Tyrone trice
deffinetely cobra, i counted 4 times that ruelas was dropped in a fight that was decided i feel better with a draw or a round then the scores that they gave.
They didn't want Pendleton to beat Rafel.They wanted Oscar vs Rafel.That fight was more marketable for the promoter.
