Styles make fights I think.
Philips was far from a great fighter, but he was incredibly physical and in great condition. Although not in the same class I feel that Phillips pressure is something that Pernell couldn't have [pulled off and I see a distinct possibility that Pernell is caught in between a slip/roll/reflex defence. Remember Kostya had frightening power.
091
I remember when Gatti was fighting Floyd. Whitaker was cheering hard for Gatti to a point that I might think, Whitaker don't like Floyd. Floyd's best performance ever!!!
One think about Floyd we all have to agree on, Floyd is relax and compose in the ring. The little dancing that Whitaker use to do that made his opponent try to load up on, Floyd will never do. "Take this laser jab all night!"
Floyd by MD
I think the great thing about Pernell (or should I say 'the thing that defines his greatness') is that absolutely NO fighter (at 135/ 140) beats him 5/5... probably not even 3/3.
He's that good.
I agree at 135 to 140 I really don't see anyone in the 2 division's history can beat prime Whitaker.
At 147 the big welterweights like Leonard and Hearns would be suitable candidates to beat him, but even then I don't see them knocking him out or flat out dominating Whitaker, the guy's defense and boxing skills were too good.
And Tszyu doesn't have smarts or all around ability to beat Whitaker at 140 imo. Knocking out Zab Judah another southpaw and trying to knockout prime Whitaker are entirely 2 different things.
Not being argumentative but the reason that Whitaker was rooting for Gatti was because they were friends who sometimes trained together in Va Beach, Virginia. Whitaker attempted to make Gatti use his boxing ability more and incorporate that deep knee bend that Whitaker was so effective at using to get out of the way of punches. Just a little info I thought you might be interested in, also in case if you doubt the accuracy of this post I am sure you can google it or look at Gatti's fights with Robinson because it is mentioned briefly in the HBO commentary because at one point both Gatti and Robinson were in a Whitaker training camp at the same time.
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