BoxRec

Two defensive wizards and counter punch specialists going at it.

Who wins, why, and how?

Pernell is too fast; all other things being equal, which IMO they basically are here, speed is the defining factor. oh, and benitez's in-ring or out-of-ring laziness wouldn't serve him particularly well here, either. Pea by an 8-4 type score IMO

Counter-puncher wrote:Pernell is too fast; all other things being equal, which IMO they basically are here, speed is the defining factor. oh, and benitez's in-ring or out-of-ring laziness wouldn't serve him particularly well here, either. Pea by an 8-4 type score IMO

You've just saved me a lot of typing.

Benitez was pretty fast too, Whitaker at 147 would not have much of an edge here. Neither guy is gouing to get hit very much. Both guys were hard to hit and neither was that aggressive. They were similar in many ways and very comparable careers.

This would be a very close fight that could go either way.

This match up is another 50/50 for me. The claim that Whitaker would be too fast is not true. At welter Pernell was not as fast as he was at 135. I would argue that at 147 the difference in speed is not that much. It's not like Pernell had Sugar Ray Leonard type of speed at 147. If hard-pressed I would slightly favor Benitez.

For me:
Speed slight edge to Pernell but not by that much.
Defense slight edge to Pernell but again very close.
Power slight edge to Benitez.
Both equal in counter punching ability.
Weight class slight edge to Benitez.

Honestly, I think the judges would go with Whitaker's greater willingness to force the fight, because that's about the only way you're gonna split them. If Whitaker follows Benitez into the ropes being busy, however, the chance is there for Benitez to score points a-plenty, & fast.

Idisagree wrote:This match up is another 50/50 for me. The claim that Whitaker would be too fast is not true. At welter Pernell was not as fast as he was at 135. I would argue that at 147 the difference in speed is not that much. It's not like Pernell had Sugar Ray Leonard type of speed at 147. If hard-pressed I would slightly favor Benitez.

For me:
Speed slight edge to Pernell but not by that much.
Defense slight edge to Pernell but again very close.
Power slight edge to Benitez.
Both equal in counter punching ability.
Weight class slight edge to Benitez.

I agree with this statement because this is at their prime, and one other thing you must remember it was all about Whitaker vs Chavez in their era but in Benitez era... well that was part of the golden age of boxing with Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Pryor, Arguello, to put it this way... how would Whitaker do vs Ray Leonard? That's a more interesting question but this one is a toss up for me just like idisagree

My feeling is that these two would fight a very close fight. There’s nothing in it on terms of ability BUT Whittaker would probably be prepared to push for the win a bit harder than Benitez. Whittaker could up his work-rate if that’s what it took. Benitez has the one-shot power to do more damage but Pernell won’t leave too many openings.

Whittaker probably wins by a round, possibly two.