Back in 1997 Micky Ward vs Pernel Whitaker fight was made!

[Joey Giardello]

Reading through one of my old boxing news magazines and ward vs whitaker was on, but the fight fight fell through, ward had just beat the 16 and 0 sanchez with that famous come from behind liver shot, at the time whitaker was going through alot of problems and was not 100 percent focused on boxing. your thoughts on the fight?

[Wild Blue Yonda]

What's that old saying? That sometimes an old fighter who looks shot can pull one last great effort out?

Well, so it was with Whitaker, arguably beating a peak, undefeated De La Hoya in a razor-thin decision loss. If it's a Whitaker anywhere near as strong as the one we saw that night, he shouldn't drop more than three rounds to Ward.

On the other hand, that version of the great man, in 1997, was the exception, not the rule. I still don't quite see him losing to a Ward-calibre fighter, though. Maybe a 7-6-1 or 7-5 decision, with Ward coming on strong in the closing rounds as Whitaker fades, I could see --- but no better than that. Only the Whitaker of the Trinidad & Bojorquez debacles could give Ward a real shot at victory.

[Phantasm]

I am one of the biggest Ward fans around, but he loses this fight handily, maybe pulling off between 1 or 3 rounds. Whitaker was on another level, even on the slide. On this note, Chavez vs Ward was a done deal as well, up to a couple weeks before the fight, I think. I have a Toney fight poster with them on the undercard. That was a better matchup, imo.