WHO IS PERNELL "SWEET PEA" WHITAKER

[burglar]

Who do you think won the fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard?

A lot of guys here in Boxingscene say that Hagler won that fight.As for me, I remember when I first saw the fight (I was a kid) I thought Sugar clearly won because he threw alot of punches, he was throwing different kinds of punches from all angles( and I mean ALL including the wraparound kinda of thing. lols.) And as a kid who was first introduced to the sport I think he was so cool(I mean you know kids)... And we filipinos love Sugar so much I think my father(who was a fan of Sugar and was with me while I was watching),influenced the way I looked at the fight in its entirety cause he downplayed everything Hagler would do and magnify all the punches Sugar would throw. Nevertheless when I saw the fight AGAIN one day, I think it a pretty tough fight to score.Its those fights where the human prejudices and whims may come into play.Its those fights where it may or may not go the other way around.But I still do think Sugar won.Why? cause im a Filipino and we Filipinos love Sugar Ray Leonard...hehehe

[DLT]

Im sorry. If it wasn't Forrest, who ws it? tnx

You probally mean Tito Trinidad but Sweet Pea was older and washed up then. Here are his opponents:

[beezy 14]

All great posts about a legend, I'm glad that you guys telling it like it is .He's one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time and he's high on all time P4P lists. I've heard young close minded Tito and Oscar fans that say he's boring and doesn't punch and forget the point of the sweet science. That charisma and stuff he did like clowning is similar to Augustus today but yet he did it with greats.He made ppl look akward in the ring and limited there punch output like that Oscar fight (40 punches a round or so). And this was a older Pernell, he had great accomplishments glad to see him getting his props ppl hate on fighters like him and winky cuz their defensive styles make ppl look akward but the results are quite clear. Tito fans said the same about Winky who made Tito look amateurish with his style.

[beezy 14]

Hatton and Tszyu beating a prime Pernell! I doubt it, just my opinion there good but pernell is GREAT check all time P4P lists. They woulden't hit him like any other opponent they faced in their careers. Look how tough he made it for Oscar at 33 with ******* issues, he was still the truth. Hatton hasn't accomplished enough to say he's in Pernell class really Tszyu too but especially Hatton. He'd probably tell you that himself!And last but not least he had that charisma and ring generalship.

[onetwopunch]

Pernell was probably the greatest lightweight ever behind Duran. Slick southpaw with power but chose to box. He was robbed againts JCC, and DLH. When he fought DLH he was passed his prime and was already involved with drugs.

[oldgringo]

Hatton and Tszyu beating a prime Pernell! I doubt it, just my opinion there good but pernell is GREAT check all time P4P lists. They woulden't hit him like any other opponent they faced in their careers. Look how tough he made it for Oscar at 33 with ******* issues, he was still the truth. Hatton hasn't accomplished enough to say he's in Pernell class really Tszyu too but especially Hatton. He'd probably tell you that himself!And last but not least he had that charisma and ring generalship.

He'd beat Tszyu comfortably and he'd made Hatton look silly. He had the legs and the strength to stay away from Hatton all night and he was infinitely more skilled than is Hatton.

Tszyu would have a punchers chance but he definitely wouldn't be knocking anyone out with 1 punch. He'd have to catch him with an absolute bomb and then land several sustained shots to take him out....something that history would tell us ain't happenin.

If a monsterous 147 pound Trinidad couldn't dispatch an over-the-hill, coked out Whitaker then these two aren't coming close in his prime.

Again, I can't see many fighters beating him at lower weights. It'd have to be a tough, skilled guy who throws non-stop and is smart enough to figure a way out to get inside enough.

[Run]

I scanned this thread knowing 200% Gringo posted here. What he typed and yeah....Whitaker was a badass. But He elected to fight a way that I don't like.

Alot of people think that style is impressive...and it is, in a way. But I don't think too highly of it, because it's more like he just tried to frustrate someone into losing.

But to be fair, the level of opposition he clowned and his resume speak for themselves. Great fighter, just not my fortee.



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[beezy 14]

I agree old gringo , whoever made that posts saying they could beat Pernell is either young or just biased.haha. Even people that dislike him admit his greatness and like somebody stated he was often the smaller man when he moved up. He'd have a brawler look foolish against him so Hatton could forget about it and Tszyu as well that's no knock on them he's done it with ppl more established then them. And I noticed that alot of the body and head games that Emanuel Augustus does now Pernell would do it against Oscar and Chavez. Maybe that's why he got crappy results from judges like Augustus! PPL at the fight know the real deal tho.

[grayfist]

Whitaker was my favorite fighter of all-time. He was one of the greatest lightweights of all-time and was up there as a welterweight as well, despite being the smaller man in pretty much every fight at 147.

He was a defensive wizard and is the only other guy who is in a class with the great Willie Pep in terms of elusiveness. His reflexes and leg strength were phenomenal. He could use his gloves, shoulders and arms to deflect punches, or he could just use his tree trunk legs and reflexes to slip punches or avoid them all together.

His jab was educated and his mastery of the ring was incredible. He knew all of the angles and frustrated just about everyone he fought with his skills. No fighter ever looked good against Whitaker.

His career was riddled with controversy...whether it was the first Jose Luis Ramirez bout in which he completely outboxed the champion en route to one of the worst decisions ever seen in the 1980's. It was so controversial that a suit was filed against Whitakers manager after they accused officials of a fix. He also received a digustingly bad decision against Chavez...a fight in which he won by at least a margin of 4 points. After that controversy was seen in his bout with Oscar De La Hoya. Whitaker was already on the decline by that point, but he used a good jab and flustered the longer, more powerful De La Hoya with his defense and movement all night. He even dropped De La Hoya...but he still saw himself losing at the end of the night by margins of up to 6 points. It was a close fight, not a robbery, but I thought Whitaker did enough to win the fight and the challenger did not do enough to take the title from the champ.

Whitaker was never known as a puncher whatsoever...but the myth that he was feather fisted is a lie. Whitaker chose the road of pure boxer, rather than puncher. He'd opt to score as opposed to sit down on his punches and fire away with power shots. He did show flashes of power throughout his career though. He knocked out Juan Nazario in a unified title fight with one punch. He laid an absolute beating on Miguel Santana and stopped him midway through their fight, and he stopped an undefeated Dio Hurtado in an amazing come from behind knockout victory. He was a crafty counter-puncher still, with a great jab.

There aren't many fighters I can see beating Whitaker at lower weights. At 135 and 140 he was just an absolute monster. He was truly a great fighter, maybe the best of the 90's. for evidence of his greatness watch his fight against the all-time great champion Azumah Nelson, or his career defining performance against the unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez. His world title winning performance in his 4th weight class against the rugged champion Julio Cesar Vazquez was a great performance too.

Whew...

Each time you take the time always makes for a great read, pal!

[beezy 14]

I respect that Run With Knives, I just hate it when he doesn't get respect from other people just because he's great defensively. And against bigger punchers as he moved up when he frustrated people it allowed him to get the better because this was his style. For example even if you think Oscar won that fight you'll even admit Oscar was frustrated and he threw lower punch output then his usual. I know how hard that is to do to Oscar in his prime and many felt that he won that fight . But he coulden't of beat the bigger fighter with more reach if he fought Oscars fight so he did what smart fighters do and that's do what it takes to be succesful1