TALES OF OLYMPIC GLORY: PERNELL WHITAKER
With London 2012 well underway, FightHype UK presents it’s “Tales Of Olympic Glory” series. This series will focus on a number of boxers from all over the world who have represented their countries at the Olympic games before progressing to the professional ranks.
Understandably, not all boxing legends went to the Olympic games, but they still went on to have a successful career within the sport. For many, however, the Olympic games proved to be a platform to maximize the exposure of individuals, which ultimately translated to success in the pro ranks. While fight fans will have their eyes firmly fixed on the Olympic games to see if they can identify a superstar in the making, it is important to note that the success of previous athletes is what inspires most of the young prospects today. Names like Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr, Lennox Lewis, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Amir Khan, are just a few of the successful Olympians from both the past and present. You will notice not all of them won Olympic gold, but all went on to have to successful careers as world champions and beyond.
Part five of ‘Tales of Olympic Glory” takes a look at a Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whittaker….
Pernell Whitaker is personally one of my favorite fighters of all time, and boasts an impressive resume which can rank up there with the very best to ever lace a pair of gloves. The unfortunate thing for Whitaker the most memorable fights of his career he was robbed of victory, most notably against Julio Cesar Chavez which would have handed the Mexican legend his first loss. Never the less Whitaker is regarded as one of the finest defensive boxers of all time and comparisons are often made between him and Floyd Mayweather Jr for their similarity in style whilst inside the ring with lightening speed, great footwork, excellent counter punching speed and slick movement.
OLYMPIC GAMES 1984 – GOLD MEDAL
The Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 proved to be a platform for success for ‘Sweet Pea’ after boasting an impressive amateur record of 201-14, with 91 knockouts. The US Olympic team of 1984 proved to be a very successful team which saw the team picking up 11 medals, 9 of them gold and the legendary Evander Holyfield pick up a bronze medal.
in 1982 Whitaker was crowned National AAU Lightweight Champion defeating Frankie Randall along the way. He followed that up with a silver medal at the 1982 world championships again in the lightweight division, losing to Angel Herrera in the final but would later extract revenge on Herrera in 1983 in the gold medal match at the PAN American Games.
In 1984 on the biggest amateur stage of them all, Whitaker really stood out as one of the greatest talents in the sport. Receiving a bye in the first round Whitaker went on to defeat Adolfo Mendez 5-0 in the next round. Uruguayan Geoffrey Nyeko was up next and was disposed of 5-0 aswell. West Germany’s hopeful Reiner Gies provided the opposition for the quarter final match with Whitaker emerging victorious 5-0 and moving on to the semi finals to take on Chun Chil-Sung of South Korea. A fourth successive 5-0 victory saw Whitaker through to the gold medal match where Luis Ortiz of Puerto Rico was stopped inside two rounds after a blistering performance from Whitaker to capture the gold medal.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
In November 1984 Pernell Whitaker made his professional debut against Ferrain Comeaux which he won by a second round knockout. Whitaker suffered his first career knockdown in a unamimous points decision victory . Three fights later Whitaker captured his first professional title in 1987 in the form of the NABF lightweight title against Roger Mayweather. Both men hit the canvas during an entertaining bout with Whitaker taking a unanimous points decision victory. Later that year Whitaker added the USBA title to his NABF title with a 6th round stoppage win over Miguel Santana, However in 1988 Whitaker suffered his first career loss in his first world title fight against Jose Luis Ramires, in what today is still talked about as one of the most disgraceful decisions in the history of the sport. Whitaker lost a split decision, with almost everybody viewing the fight saw Whitaker as the victor and to be quite honest most people share my views that giving Ramirez three rounds would have been EXTREMELY generous. There was a lot of rumblings before and after the bout about the legitimacy of this fight, with Chavez waiting in the wings. Following the decision WBC president Jose Sulaiman came in for huge criticism, in particular from Whitaker’s co trainer Lou Duva who claimed the fight was fixed. Never the less the decision remained and surprise surprise the bout between Ramires and Chavez did take place immediately after this fight with Chavez scoring a technical decision victory.
Whitaker did not have to wait too much longer for a world title, as following a knockout victory over Antonio Carter, Whitaker was presented with an IBF lightweight title fight against Greg Haugen, with Whitaker dominating the fight from start to finish winning 120-107, 120-107 and 118-109 on the score cards. Whitaker would then extract revenge on Ramires defeating him on a unanimous decision very convincingly again which added the vacant WBC title to the IBF title Whitaker already held. In 1990 Whitaker had chance to unify the lightweight division by adding the WBA title to the WBC and IBF title and a dominant first round knockout victory over Juan Nazario would saw Whitaker become undisputed lightweight champion.
In 1992 Whittaker became a two weight world champion by capturing the IBF world light welterweight title by beating Rafael Pineda in a short stay in the division which consisted of two fights before moving up to the welterweight division and the following year Whitaker became a three weight world champion by capturing the WBC welterweight title by outpointing Buddy McGirt. The first defense of the the title came against the undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez in what is the most talked about bout in Whitaker’s career. Chavez entered the bout with a perfect professional record of 87-0 but was out classed in a bout that would have been the most memorable of Whitaker’s career. However inexplicably the bout was declared a draw which was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd and the second time that Whitaker had been robbed in a WBC title fight. Whitaker would go on and hold that WBC title for another four years where he took on ‘The Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya towards the end of his career. This bout generated his interested with a reported $28.8m made in PPV revenue and 720,000 PPV buys. Whitaker suffered the second defeat in this fight despite out punching De La Hoya and a lot of the media had Whitaker winning the fight. De La Hoya captured the WBC title in a bout that could have gone either way in many people’s eyes, but I personally had Whitaker winning the fight.
Later that year a victory over Andrey Pestryaev was changed to a no contest after Whitaker tested positive for cocaine which really tarnished what was an impressive career and put Whitaker out of the ring for 2 years. Towards the end of his career it was going to be difficult to maintain the levels we were used to from Pernell Whitaker but being out the ring for almost 2 years is going to be extremely difficult. Whitaker returned to take on Felix Trinidad a bout in which he lost comfortably on points and initially appeared to end his illustrious career. In 2001 however ‘Sweet Pea’ returned to the ring for one last belt which proved to be catastrophic as Whitaker broke his clavicle forcing the fight to be stopped in the 4th round and that would prove to be the last fight of Pernell Whittaker’s career which saw him rack up 40 wins (17 by knockout), 4 losses and a draw baring in mind two of the four losses were HIGHLY controversial, and two being right at the very end of his career after 2 year lay offs, with the draw being a victory that was not awarded.
Pernell Whitaker after a brush with the law regarding his cocaine abuse, Whittaker returned to the sport as a trainer most notably working the corner of Calvin Brock, and Zab Judah.
PERNELL WHITAKER’S GOLD MEDAL MATCH:
