RIP Pernell Whitaker

[Beanz]

Boxing legend Pernell Whitaker has died at the age of 55 after being hit by a car.
Whitaker won world titles at four different weights and is considered among the best to have ever laced up a pair of gloves.
According to TMZ, he was hit by a car on Sunday night and later died of his injuries.
Whitaker, nicknamed 'Sweet Pea' won Olympic gold in 1984 before turning professional in the same year.
He lost his first challenge for a world title against Jose Luis Ramirez four years later but won another version two years later against Greg Hauden.
Whitaker then went on an unbeaten run until 1997 when he ran into Oscar De La Hoya before losing two of this final three fights.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxin...oxing-18262323

[Beanz]

[TitoFan]

Wow... super sad to hear that. 55 years old. Old for a boxer, but presumably a lot of life still to live.

Gotta wonder about the particulars any time there's a car-pedestrian accident.

R.I.P. champ.

[Master]

Pernell was an ATG lightweight and was unbeatable at the weight. Really shocked and saddened by the news. The man was a magician as a boxer who opponents could not hit.

He became welterweight champion and then beat the light middleweight champ (who beat Winky Wright) which shows you how great he was p4p. Sweat P had a fabulous career and only age beat him in the ring.

RIP ATG Champ

[Dark Lord Al]

Sweet Pea could be inside or outside and you couldnt hit him cleanly, ATG / Legend , if he had knockout power we would be morning the greatest fighter of all time.

R.I.P Champ.

[walrus]

Damn hit by a car. That’s a bad day. 55 probably still in great health very sad to hear

[Beanz]

[walrus]

https://apple.news/AkA2ONiv6Qp-hsA_2E9_Ytw

So the driver stuck around. Speed and or alcohol don’t appear to be a factor on the drivers side at least. As far as I know sweat pea had cleaned up his act so maybe it was just one of those people not paying attention....sad

[Denilson-The-Comeback]

RIP Champ



That car would have never got close to him back in his prime. Hey. Sometimes you have to find humor even in sadness and this is sadness to him (at a relatively young age of 55) and his family.

I heard that he took back the house he gave his mum back but you don't know what goes in families. But what I do know is that 1984 USA Olympic team will never be matched.

I know the Cubans boycotted the 84 games (and the Russians and the Germans) and people argue that the 1976 USA boxing with Leonard, the Spinks brothers, Howard Davis, John Tate was better because the Cubans (and all the other strongest boxing nations) were there but the 84 team of Pernell Whitaker Meldrick Taylor, Evander Holyfield, Mark Breland, Virgil Hill, Tyrell Biggs.......Damn !

And if you still doubt how strong that team was then think on this

Mike Tyson couldn't even get in the 1984 USA boxing team

Just let that sink in.

Having said that I'd agree that had Teofilio Stevenson from Cuba turned up in 84 then he not Tyrell Biggs would have won gold. But that's it.

Once of my earliest memories of boxing as a 10 year old was watching Sweet P take the legend Chavez Sr to school like it was parent teachers conference.

He was simply a defensive master.



Yeah...yeah ..calm down all you boxing nerds..."He's crouching below the waist !! He's crouching below the waist !!"

I know. I know.

Now is not the time though because without Whitaker to serve as inspiration I doubt the likes of Mayweather or Ward would have become as good as they did.

[X]

One of the best who ever laced up a pair of gloves. So so tricky, a masterful boxer who made very good fighters look very ordinary indeed. Never ducked anyone.

Had his issues outside the ring when he retired (like so many do)

Gone much too young. Rest in peace, Chanp.

[Primo Carnera]

Terrible news.

[Master]

I forgot what a brutal body puncher Sweet Pea was, what an boxing artist.

[Baal]

He was a legend. It is very sad news. I express my condolences to his family

[Spicoli]

The terms legend, a great, ring general, robbed and the p4p are all overused when we talk about top fighters. But Pernell Whitaker was unequivocally without a doubt all of the above with room to spare. The man was simply superb and fought all comers. He is the first fighter I can say I came around on when it came to respect and appreciation, from early career to the bitter end. I sat there one day watching him out fight and out tough Haugen and I was seething, then he takes the hof Azumah Nelson and literally clowns with him to the level of disrespect amid dominance. But overtime and over years you know greatness when you see it. He was no backfoot tinker bell simply trying to avoid a fight..he wanted to stand in front of you, flat footed in large spans, and put on a true display of defensive wizardry and make a guy pay for lacking their own. He didn't play tip toe weight classes and pick trinkets from warm bodies..he jumped to 154 to beat the brakes off a buzzsaw in dominate champion Vasquez and he did it just to mess around. He had his own close calls on the cards, his own personal trials and tribulations that caught up and cost him and those around him dearly. But he did what champions in life and in the ring do..he came back, sacked up and fought his arse off with Trinidad through a broken jaw and every odd stacked against him. Short on the cards that night but no shortness on greatness and heart. Thank you Champ, you made more memories for young fans than you probably ever knew and you sir will be truly missed. Rest easy Sweet Pea.

[mrbig1]

I don't use the word great very often but Whitaker was an all time great. Could not be hit but could hit anybody at will. R.I.P. champ.