Pernell Whitaker

Another loss to the sports community as Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker was killed last Sunday after being hit by a car in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Whitaker won championships at lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight, and even junior middleweight in a one-fight cameo at 154 pounds and arguably wasn't legitimately defeated for over 15 years after his pro debut in 1984.
Whitaker lost his first attempt at a title to Jose Luis Ramirez for Ramirez's WBC lightweight title in a decision so awful that it smells to this day, Whitaker's draw with Julio Cesar Chavez only misses the stench of the Ramirez loss  because it was scored a draw and his loss to Oscar De La Hoya, while not being as bad as the aforementioned two, was still a fight that most thought Whitaker deserved to win.
In only his 1999 decision loss to Felix Trinidad and his final fight, a TKO defeat due to an injury to Carlos Bojorquez were fights that Whitaker was truly beaten and in the case of Bojorquez, it was a case of an injury ending a fight early.
Whitaker was past his prime and at junior middleweight, far heavier than his optimum weight, but still would have likely pulled the Bojorquez fight out, in my opinion, had he not been injured.

Pernell Whitaker's 1984 Olympic gold medal was, along with Mark Breland from the American team, one that few wondered if he would have won his gold had the feared Cuban team not been part of the Soviet boycott (revenge for the USA boycott of the 1980 Moscow games) as Whitaker and Breland were the two gold medal winners that would have been favored to win the tournament even with the field at full strength.
Whitaker defeated a total of eleven fighters (13 if you choose to count Chavez and De La Hoya) that held world titles during their career and it was a testament to his greatness that very few on that list were challenges to the best defensive fighter of my time.

For all of Whitaker's wins, few of them were what you would describe as exciting even against the best of his competition.
In fact, many of those wins were so dominant that the most interesting part of the fight was to see the small percentage of punches landed against Whitaker's defense, which was more about avoiding punches than getting on the bicycle and moving around the ring using your legs
Pernell Whitaker's defense was the greatest of my era of watching boxing even better than other defensive wizards such Wilfred Benitez and Hector Camacho and it could be interesting watching Whitaker dazzle and shine as he made top-notch boxers swing and miss like a slugger swinging from his heels- For a while.

Unless you really loved defensive boxing, Whitaker's act could get a little stale after a few rounds and almost all of his wins in championship competition were via decision with the exception of his left hand which ended his lightweight unification battle with Juan Nazario in the first round.
Whitaker had so many lopsided wins in his career and even though his "draw" with Julio Cesar Chavez was regarded by many as the performance of his career (I scored Whitaker a 117-111 winner), but the fight that I'll remember Whitaker best for wasn't against any of those champions that I mentioned earlier.

In January 1997, Whitaker was showing the first signs of slipping a bit after his two wins over Wilfredo Rivera (the first of which was a debatable split decision victory that some thought should have been in Rivera's favor and the second of which was a fairly easy win for Whitaker) in his only fights of 1996.
Whitaker was facing Cuban Diobelys Hurtado, a talented but extremely untested prospect and expected to be far out of his league against Whitaker in Whitaker's latest title defense.
However, for ten rounds, Hurtado would fight the fight of his career and although he would hold a title later for a brief period, would never fight this well again.
Hurtado held the lead on the scorecards after ten rounds and as the boxing world looked on in stunned amazement, only had to survive the final two rounds to pull an upset that would rival Douglas over Tyson and with Whitaker never having been in this situation before, who knew how he would react with his title on the line.
What Pernell Whitaker did was something that was against his fighting style and something he had never been before- Be legitimately (regardless of judging) be behind on the scorecards and turn on an attack that abandoned caution.
Whitaker turned on the motor and knocked out Hurtado in the eleventh to save his championship and show the grit that he had never had to use before.
After all, in his loss to Jose Luis Ramirez and the draw against Chavez, Whitaker's corner (along with almost everyone watching) thought he was ahead on the scorecards, so being aggressive wasn't needed, so this was new territory for Whitaker.
For all the defensive performances and the superior skills that Whitaker had shown, this would be the fight that I remember most about Pernell Whitaker- when the gameplan must be changed and the title slipping away, Whitaker showed the championship heart that never had been proven because there had never been a situation to bring it to the forefront.


The win over Hurtado was the last highlight of the Hall of Famer's career as three months later, Whitaker dropped the disputed decision to Oscar De La Hoya, won a boring unanimous decision over Andrey Pestryayev that became a no-contest, when Whitaker failed a post-fight drug test and then would lose to Felix Trinidad after a 15 month layoff before the Bojorquez loss over two years after that.

Pernell Whitaker certainly ranks with the top lightweights of all time and Whitaker could be rated as the greatest defensive fighter ever and even if not rated that highly, he deserves to be in the conversation.
It'll be a while before we see someone with the pure skills of Pernell Whitaker and that fighter will have some big gloves to fill...