Essential RIP Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker 1964-2019

[LauderdaleBoss]

so was oscar's offense...sweet pea really made him look like a fool in there with the swings and a miss..and sweet pea did score the lone knockdown in that fight..but oscar did what few fighters did against pernell..put the pressure on him and made pernell work...i think those swings convinced the judges that oscar was doing something and thats why the scores were what they were

chavez it wasnt a shut out but sweet pea won at least 9 rounds easy..2 115-115 scores ..and mexicans booing that shyt...good enough to call it a robbery lol..i mean when will you ever see a magazine like sports illustrated put a boxer on a cover because he was a victim of a robbery..unless im drawing a blank it hasnt happened since

sweet pea washed ramirez in that first fight

Yeah, I'm not saying Chavez vs Whitaker wasn't a robbery, but it's not the huge monumental robbery that history likes to make it out to be. Burton vs. Augustus for example was a much bigger robbery in my eyes, its just that the fight itself wasn't significant like that for the mainstream to care.

 

[Knicksman20]

Anyone that followed Max Kellerman back in the day knew he was a Sweet Pea stan. He even called a young Zab Judah Sweet Pea with power lol

 

[Achille]

 

[patscorpio]

great post about sweet pea

What's up Bread?

You always do amazing breakdowns as far as providing cliff notes for a fighter's career and I was hoping you could do the same in honor of the late Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker (R.I.P). I was reviewing his career on Boxrec and I noticed that he and another late champion (Hector Camacho) somehow managed to never cross paths. I figured you could provide additional context on that and the rest of Whitaker's hall of fame career.

Peace,
William in West Palm

Bread’s Response: Sometimes stars just don’t cross paths. Camacho is slightly older than Whitaker but they were from the same era in the same weight class. I’m glad no one looked back and made up a myth about a “DUCK” like some idiots do with Ray Leonard and Aaron Pryor who were NEVER in the same weight class.

Often times the praise that a fighter gets is misguided. I’ve seen it with many fighters but Whitaker is at the top of the list. The compliments that Whitaker receives is almost an insult to his real game. People call him a defensive wizard and a stick and mover. He was that but much more.

Pernell Whitaker is among the best 30 fighters in the history of boxing. Most likely higher but I’m doing this off the top of my head. He’s among the top 5 lightweights ever. He’s one of 8 or 9 men in history who have won the lightweight title and the welterweight title. He’s one of the 6 men in history to win the lightweight title and the junior middleweight title. He could be our best ever amateur fighter at 132lbs. That’s just his accomplishments.

Here is my subjective view of his skills. He has the best south paw jab ever and one of the best 20 jabs in the history of boxing. He’s an A+ in fighter and body puncher. He’s one of the top 3 or southpaws ever. Most likely the best. Over the last 40 years he has to be in the top 5 fighters. He’s one of meanest and gutsy fighters I have ever seen. He had a personality of he literally didn’t care who he fought. If you know boxing you know he was never the cause of a fight NOT happening. He was no taller than 5’5 and he was able to win a junior middleweight title. He may be the shortest junior middleweight champion in history. He was immensely strong and with huge legs. He’s one of the top 5 pure boxers in boxing history. He’s one of the top 5 defensive fighters in boxing history. And he’s one of the top 10 out fighters in boxing history.

Pernell Whitaker was truly special. I’ve seen over half of his career fights live as they happened and he’s every bit as good as Ray Leonard, Roy Jones and Floyd Mayweather. He wasn't marketed the way they were, but skill for skill, accomplishment for accomplishment, eye ball test on best day he’s right there. A+ fighter.

 

[mson]

 

[Erratic415]

its funny seeing the amount of posts thinking sweet pea getting robbed in his fight with oscar...i know oscar is like at all the RIP Sweet Pea posts mentioning on social media

me i think chavez and ramirez 1 fights were real robberies..oscar vs sweet pea could go either way IMO with close scores...the actual scores though were trash ...might be time for a rewatch on that

De La Hoya-Whitaker was a nightmare to score, neither guy was landing clean.

When Cus D’Amato talked about an aging fighter putting together one last great performance, I think this one is an example. Whitaker had clearly slipped after 1995 and was against a young undefeated future HOFer who had sizeable edges in height and reach. His defense against Oscar was masterful.

Whitaker clearly deserved the nod against Chavez and Ramirez. I gave him like 8-9 rounds in those fights.

 

[BigBrown21]

RIP Pernell Whitaker

 

[NormanConnors]

real talk...floyd is an old school cat..he's been around and sparred some of the cats in the generation before him like sweet pea and others...im sure he has stories and stories he can tell..dude could write a GOAT boxing book/memoir if someone sat his ass down and asked him about that instead of the money may stuff

I bet Floyd would oblige/probably is something he would like/want to do. Breh loves boxing, we can all see that behind the money may gimmick (which it is/family members have even confirmed)

 

[NormanConnors]

De La Hoya-Whitaker was a nightmare to score, neither guy was landing clean.

When Cus D’Amato talked about an aging fighter putting together one last great performance, I think this one is an example. Whitaker had clearly slipped after 1995 and was against a young undefeated future HOFer who had sizeable edges in height and reach. His defense against Oscar was masterful.

Whitaker clearly deserved the nod against Chavez and Ramirez. I gave him like 8-9 rounds in those fights.

I agree with this post except for the match being a nightmare to score. Pea won/beat ODLH fairly easy to me

 

[Neuromancer]

Legendary boxer. Defense impregnable.

 

[Skip b]

A few bad decisions and nobody really gives a fukk about a ATG......

 

[surv2syn]

De La Hoya-Whitaker was a nightmare to score, neither guy was landing clean.

When Cus D’Amato talked about an aging fighter putting together one last great performance, I think this one is an example. Whitaker had clearly slipped after 1995 and was against a young undefeated future HOFer who had sizeable edges in height and reach. His defense against Oscar was masterful.

Whitaker clearly deserved the nod against Chavez and Ramirez. I gave him like 8-9 rounds in those fights.

Sweet Pea won that fight against Oscar. neither may have been landing clean but Pea controlled that fight. Oscar couldnt do anything with him. he wasnt getting enough credit for how he made Oscar miss in that fight. his jab was controlling the pace and he even scored a KD. in theory it wasnt a robbery but in reality it was if you consider that he had that KD and still lost by 4 points on one card and 5 on the other two then you can see the outcome was blatantly predetermined. there was too much riding on ODLH getting that belt. it was controversial at best....and the scores were pure bullshyt. look at how badlefthook scored it

Classic Round-by-Round: Pernell Whitaker v. Oscar de la Hoya

fyi: this fight is on DAZN

 

[chunky_mcdaniels]

I bet Floyd would oblige/probably is something he would like/want to do. Breh loves boxing, we can all see that behind the money may gimmick (which it is/family members have even confirmed)

Real talk.

Behind all the Money team shyt is just a kid that loves boxing more than life itself. Floyd just lives and breathes boxing.

While all these new training techniques and dietician fads came and went throughout the Floyd career, he just kept doing the same thing. Pure boxing training. Fundamentals.

Sparring, skipping, bag work, pad work and learning from the greats.

 

[KingsOfKings]

 

[MasterOfAllHeSurveyz]

I was stationed in Portsmouth, in drydock, around the time Whitaker and Buddy McGirt had their rematch. Me and my friend saw McGirt running one day and chopped it up with him. You couldn't miss that long ass bald head even under a cap. That snapback was on the last snap and was struggling. As we were leaving, my homey shouted out from the car, "Buddy, Sweatpea gonna fukk you up." McGirt must have had a spy following from the Whitaker camp because a guy tried to flag us down that we at first thought was with McGirt. The dude followed us to the corner store and gave us free tix to the fight at the Scope for fukking with McGirt. That was my second fight I ever attended with the first being with my dad @ the Anthony Hembrick vs. Booker T. Word clash.