Whitaker vs. Robinson P4P

Toughy. I said earlier I feel Robinson may win a rematch, but it takes a genius fighter to be able to constantly beat a style like Whitaker's. Robinson may well have been that. Then again it takes a genius fighter to constantly keep off an offense like Robinson's. Whitaker may well have been that. Just so hard to decide. As you can see I believe we are talking two of the very elites here, in head to head terms, it's these guys and Roy Jones as the superelites. I see it going 3-2 for either, and I'll just leave it at that.

 

Had Whitaker been younger (say the one who fought McGirt or Chavez) I think he would have been more active against DLH than what he was in their actual fight. That said, it can't all be attributable to Whitaker's age, and some credit needs to go to the sharpness of DLH's offensive attack, which also contributed to Whitaker being cautious. To verify this, we need look no further than Whitaker's fight against Trinidad where he was more offensive than what he was in the DLH fight. Whilst this can be taken as being the result of Whitaker going into that fight with the mentality of taking it to Tito, or not being able to move as much as he did against DLH (which would have contributed to his greater offensive output than in the DLH fight) I think it was also the result of Tito's punches not being as blisteringly sharp as DLH's and that afforded Whitaker the oppurtunity to let his hands go more.

Bringing it back to Pea-Ray: I think a peak prime Whitaker would be more offensive against Robinson than he was against DLH, no question about that. BUT, a peak prime Ray would be offensively much better than the DLH that Pea faced. As such, I see it panning out like DLH-Whitaker but at a much higher level; meaning a more frenetic pace, more puches thrown by both, but with pretty much the same effect. The one difference, other than the pace/activity of the fight will be that Robinson WILL land some of his combos. DLH didn't land a single combo in that fight.

 

You think so? I believe Whitaker went into the Tito fight with that mindset and fight plan because he simply couldn't do what he used to. He was fully shot in that fight. He didn't have near the reflexes of even the DLH fight, and was eating Tito jabs and straight rights all night long(despite ducking and weaving much faster punches from Oscar) because of it. To me, he was just letting it all hang out in that fight, as it was all he could really offer.

Does that not give you goosebumps just thinking about?

 

Yeah good point, that might have also contributed. I actually added that in to my post (after you read it). If you go back and read my post now you'll see the inclusion of that possibility.

It does. To be honest, I don't think anyone came near to pushing Whitaker to his limit at lightweight and that's a shame. Put up against a Robinson who would stretch him to the limit, I think we would have seen some INCREDIBLE moves and it would likely be considered one of the greatest bouts, from a stylistic standpoint, ever encountered in the history of the sport.

 

I had Whitaker by a point but really there was no clear winner.

 

Whitaker by 2 points.

 

Just out of interest, do you have a scorecard for it?

Here's mine: 114-113 Whitaker

DLH winning rounds 2,3,4,8 and 12.
Whitaker winning rounds 1,5,6,9,10 and 11.
Round 7 being even.

I think the questionable rounds are the 4th, 7th and 10th. Oscar arguably wins all these, thus giving him a victory by a couple of points.

I have seen some people give Oscar the 6th round but I don't think he did enough there to make a decent argument for giving him the round.

 

i thought de la hoya landed the more cleaner blows and im a whitaker nuthugger. A 94 whitaker would have schooled oscar and tito, so i really dont care about this fight anyways.

 

I don't have a scorecard. In fact, I rarely do. Often times I see people with full scorecards of each round of these fights, and I just don't do it that way. I probably should, to have a better argument in case I need it. I scored the bout for Whitaker by two points, though it's been a while since I've seen it.

 

HAH! I remember arguing with you a while back about how a prime Whitaker does against Tito, and you said Tito would win. Admit it, I changed your mind.

I personally believe, regarding the DLH/Whitaker fight, that Pea controlled the pace of the fight, and didn't allow DLH to get his game going, all the while controilling the fight and keeping it at his pace, especially with the jab.

 

I am saying that, at least in a P4P matchup, not too sure about everyone else.