Pernell Whitaker R.I.P.

Pernell Whitaker dies aged 55
https://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/11763729/pernell-whitaker-dies-aged-55

David Haye: He was so unorthodox, he was so hard to hit with a clean shot, you couldn't hit him with a fistful of rice he was that elusive and one of the greatest fighters of all time."
By Peter Gilbert
Last Updated: 15/07/19 5:27pm

Pernell Whitaker has died at the age of 55 after being hit by a car in Virginia on Sunday night.
'Sweet Pea' won Olympic gold in 1984 before becoming a four-weight world champion as a professional, winning lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight and light middleweight titles.
The American southpaw, who was widely considered one of the greatest defensive boxers of all time, retired from the ring with a 40-4-1 record in 2001.

"To everyone please respect my family's privacy in this trying moment," said Whitaker's daughter Dominique.
"I want to inform people that today we lost a legend, truly one of boxing's greatest pound-for-pound champions, my father Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker."
Whitaker shared a ring with fellow legends Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez and was rated by Ring Magazine as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world from 1993 to 1997.

He holds the record for the longest unified lightweight championship reign with six title defences and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
"He will always be known as one of the greatest defensive fighters," former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion David Haye told Sky Sports.
"He was like [Vasyl] Lomachenko today. He was so unorthodox, he was so hard to hit with a clean shot, you couldn't hit him with a fistful of rice he was that elusive and one of the greatest fighters of all time."

After hanging up his gloves he continued to work in the sport as a trainer and worked with former welterweight champion Zab Judah.

He is survived by his wife and five children.

Saw this very sad news earlier today. Whitaker has, for years now, been one of my favourite fighters of all time and I bored many a poster on here back in the day with my superlatives for him. A shame that he never quite got the full credit or status he deserved during his career, and equally so that he had a pretty bad time of it after he hung up the gloves as well.

But he'll always be one for the boxing romantics and his legacy will live on, because he was a one-off. Had positively freakish gifts and a style all of his own. Locche, Ali, Benitez etc. all clowned their opponents and threw the textbook out of the window when it came to defence, but I don't think anyone combined that free-flowing defensive unorthodoxy with speed and perfectly coordinated footwork like Pea did. There's been no one else quite like him. Appreciate he wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I could (and frequently have!) watch him for hours on end.

Fantastic fighter and, albeit in a very different way, one who was every bit as special as some of the more renowned names in the past thirty-odd years such as Floyd, Sugar Ray etc. RIP Sweet Pea.

He was most certainly my cup of tea. I didn't watch any of his fights at the time (back then, the only boxing on my radar was really Naz, Eubank/Benn, and heavyweights!) but have watched a lot since, on YouTube, etc. At his best, his performances were absolutely mesmerising.

There are millions of showreel knockouts out there, but nobody else could do what he did.

Second greatest lightweight of alltime......Wonderful technician. Greatest performance was making probably the greatest pressure fighter of that era (Azumah Nelson) look like a novice for 12 rounds...Mcgirt suffered the same fate....

Presided over a lightweight division that had gone from the best in Boxing to one of the worst.....A scant few years before we had........Rosario...Mancini...Bramble...Camacho...Paul...Crawley...Boza Edwards....Ramirez.. Arroyo...all at their best..

In fairness he was the first fighter to out-class the great Chavez....

Saying all that he was a stinker that made watching paint dry seem interesting....Dirty fighter too..Forever spinning his opponents around illegally...

Outside the ring remembered reading he kicked his Mum out of her house and bragged about it...

My favourite moment was seeing Trinidad spank him around...

Sorry he's dead.....But can't say I will miss him or his fights..

Hi, old poster who changed his name-was andygf- missed this old place as there’s nothing like some good old passive aggressive behaviour /or banter, as it’s sometimes known.
I was saddened to hear of Sweet Pea’s demise.I wonder if we will see his like again.

Such a shame to lose a legend this way, a genius of the sport

https://youtu.be/LM53RkUGh_s

He was everything that was good about boxing,wasn’t he?