Pernell Whitaker should've been FOTD for the '90s

[UND]

Would have to give Jones the edge, apart from the DQ, he dominated most of his fights and in his words 'made fighters look like nobodys'.

[jrosales13]

Who agrees with me that Whitaker should've been given the Fighter of the Decade award, for the '90s? Jones won it, but let's make a comparison of their accomplishments:

Opponents they beat in the '90s

Whitaker

Azumah Nelson
Julio Cesar Chavez (draw, but everyone knows he won)
Buddy McGirt
Jorge Paez
Julio Cesar Vasquez
Freddie Pendleton
Rafael Pineda
Jake Rodriguez
Juan Nazario
Diosbelys Hurtado

Jones

James Toney
Bernard Hopkins
Mike McCallum (shot)
Virgil Hill
Reggie Johnson
Jorge Fernando Castro
Vinny Pazienza
Montell Griffin
Eric Lucas
Thulani Malinga

Number of weight divisions they won titles at

Whitaker: 4

Lightweight
Light Welterweight
Welterweight
Light Middleweight

Jones: 3

Middleweight
Super Middleweight
Light Heavyweight

I go with Roy slight edge though.. Whitaker has a case for claiming FOTD in the 90's. But, i would vote for Roy.

Whitaker has a good argument! I personally shade Jones for the decade because he was so obviously superior to all his opponents in the 90s. The first Griffin fight was the only time he appeared to have a tough fight despite the strange ending.

Jones also didn't 'really' lose a fight in the 90s, the Griffin Dq being the only blemish. Whitaker finished the decade with decision losses to De La Hoya and Trinidad whilst battling a ******* addiction, I could see this swaying voters who may have forgot his excellence in the first half of the decade.

But good resumes for each.....

Both great fighters in a great decade!

In my eyes Whitaker was undefeated till he fought Tito 1999. I personally never saw Whitaker lose a fight until the Tito fight.

felix trinidad also beat his ass in the 90s lets not forget about that!!

And, that was a shot ****ed up version of Whitaker going against an ATG WW who was in his prime... Everybody gets old. However, IMO 1 fight in 99 against an ATG WW does not take away the run he had from 1990 till 1997 where again I didn't see him lose.

While Whitaker had a great run during the 90's...

He lost in 1997, didn't even fight in 1998.. and then lost again in 1999.

Meanwhile... Nobody ever beat Roy in the entire decade, DQ aside.. which was immediately revenged.

MW over Hopkins, SMW over #3 p4p Toney, then was the WBC, WBA, and IBF LHW champion at the end of the decade, with not only not being beaten, but barely losing a round the entire decade.

Unfortunately the thread starter just kind of left out the fact that the last 3 years of that decade Whitaker was inactive and coming off losses.

I would say this even though is a draw everybody knows Whitaker beat JCC. I do understand if people don't want to really give him credit for a victory since it is officially a lost. But, IMO that "draw" > any win of Roy in the 90's. And, plus I think Whitaker won I think that was a horrific robber. And, JCC was greater than any opponent that Roy has ever faced.

I would even say Azumah Nelson was just as great as James Toney was. And, personally I think Nelson was a better fighter than that version of Hopkins IMO.

And, I personally think he beat Oscar. But, I know he doesn't get credit cuz it was officially a lost.

Jones looked unbeatable in his hey day. To bad there where a lot of European champions at that time and the fights never got made. Whitaker under-rated win was against Julio Ceasar Vazquez. Physically bigger guy that had wins over Winky and Castillejo at the time, Pernell had him so confused in the fight. I would had to go with Jones even though Pernell is one of my top personal favorites

Very, very underrated... Very underrated. Whitaker was something special man....

[jrosales13]

Again I would vote for Roy... He was just more consistent throughout the decade. And, even though I think Whitaker beat the better fighter during the 2nd half of the decade when he was passed his prime he struggled with a few fighters. While Roy had probably 1 mild struggle throughout the 90's.

Whitaker true dominance was from 1985-1995 Anything after that was just passed his prime. He still managed to make a supposedly ATG prime fighter look ****** and confused on few occasions but that is just a testament of his true greatness when he could do that passed his prime.

Roy was dominant throughout the whole decade. Probably only lost a handful of rounds throughout the decade. Just pure dominance. So he gets the edge IMO. But, Whitaker does have a case IMO also.

[Miburo]

I agree - but Jones was a hype machine, people had never seen anything like him, so it was inevitable.

[crold1]

For me it was Whitaker and I think he was generally superior. Both had similar lengths of outstanding run. Pea was the best fighter in the world from 1990-95/96 (Rivera I was the point where I think Jones moved ahead of him and Pea really started slipping) and while his last few years showed fade, it's easily forgotten than Jones didn't do anything worth noting from 1990-92; those were development years.

[$Bullsfam$]

It's a hard one. Pernell should be it for his reign of dominance and the great quality opposition he fought. Roy should be for how he was untouched all the way to the heavyweight division. Just nobody that Roy Jones beat was too special though really besides a few. So that hurts him.

I personally don't think you can go wrong, but I go with Whitaker because quality of opposition means a lot to me.

[Instinto]

I was thinking about this today and believe that Whitaker should've been awarded by FOTD. Even thought RJJ was dominating decade, doesn't mean he was beating great HOFers. Whitaker lost at the end of his career, this loss doesn't lower his resume over RJJ's resume.

Why don't give Calzaghe FOTD of 2000s if he was dominating everyone?

[TBear]

I loved Whitaker during the 90's and it was very close. If I was forced to pick I would give to Jones Jr. as well.

[RINGG]

I give it to Whitaker because his run at lightweight was against a better pool of talent.

[SCtrojansbaby]

Roy Jones and its not even close Trinidad and Toney are battling it out for #2. Pernell is #4 MAYBE(and argument could be made for Holyfield and Lennox over him). Pernell's best win was against a 33 year old Azumah and he got the shyt beat out of him by Trinidad.