why is pernell whitaker sounding punch drunk when he was a good defensive fighter?

[onetwopunch]

- Main reason was drugs, and yes he was an amazing defensive fighter, But after he faced Tito, he took way to many shots in that fight, that was the 1st time I actually saw Sweet Pea loose a fight.

[////]

you only see a small part of a boxers career on tv, for all we know he got bonked stupid for years in sparring

[M Bison]

You're not including all the sparring he might have done, regardless of him not taking a huge amount of damage he still had a long career, I mean look at Floyd he sounds more and more like his father punch drunk to heaven.

[New England]

he took tons of shots over the course of his career in spite of the fact taht he was a great defensive fighter. sparring, amateurs, pros from 135 to 147, where he fought trinidad, de la hoya, two hellish punchers. even fought at 154 briefly, and he was not that big of a dude.


also got dropped by uncle rodge, IIRC, but i haven't seen that fight in a long, long time.


and as others have mentioned, whitaker was into drugs and he drank. that will absolutely ruin a boxer.

[-Hyperion-]

Brain damage is not about the fights, it's about the gym work. Headgear gives you more brain damage than a punch. Not only because of the swivel effect, but it also discourages good defense, makes your head a bigger target and limits your peripheral vision and makes it harder to defend. IMO, head gear should only be used if you know you'll be in risk of headbutts. I try using it as little as possible.

[Reloaded]

you only see a small part of a boxers career on tv, for all we know he got bonked stupid for years in sparring

Yep its the accumulation of the gym sparring that is more long term damaging than the fights in many instances .

[Santa_]

Oscar De La Hoya took his soul, it happens.

[SeekDaGreat]

I'm pretty sure Whitaker got clobbered quite a bit. There's no specific threshold on what a mount of blows to the head can cause issues. It could have been one punch.

[hectari]

Gym sparring is the number one for becoming punchy, but was Sweet Pea a notorious gym sparrer? I just remember him being one of those special talents who loved to party and wasn't much of a sparring guy he was not the type to let you hit him on the ropes like Ali.

He sounds more like Ozzy Osbourne a hard drug user, who used week, coke and liquor combined almost weekly.

James Toney is a result of daily sparring, as well as Terry Norris, these guys were notorious gym sparring guys, just like Brandon Rios, they would spar even if they never had a fight.

Sparring will make your head rattle, I remember the old school fighters felt you could condition your punch resistance by taking heavy shots in sparring. Which is later found to be BS, most guys who can take a punch are just born that way, I seen some videos of regular guys who got sucker punched by a flush hard shot and drop like a sack of bricks and others who didn't even wobble and knocked the other coward out who sucker punched them, having a good chin is genetics.

I know Freddie Roach said he doesn't advise guys to spar unless they have fights coming up, its why he tends to get sparring partners for his fighters who also have fights coming up so they can both be competitive and give good work.

You dont see guys like Juan Manuel Marquez slurring their words, and that guy has been in more damaging wars than Sweet Pea, that guy has taken some beatings, but he still alert and talks clear. Big George Foreman is another guy he wasn't a guy who sparred year round either, and he doesn't slur and he took some heavy beatings in his career but still sharp as a tack and alert and witty, Ali was a notorious gym sparrer, he would sparr for fun even without fights, and would let guys tee off on his head in the corner just to tease them and say is that all you got?

[-Kev-]

Brain damage is not about the fights, it's about the gym work. Headgear gives you more brain damage than a punch. Not only because of the swivel effect, but it also discourages good defense, makes your head a bigger target and limits your peripheral vision and makes it harder to defend. IMO, head gear should only be used if you know you'll be in risk of headbutts. I try using it as little as possible.

Your kinda right. Headgear neither makes punches feel worse or feel better, the punch feels the same. They do not absorb the punch, they are there to protect from cuts and clash of heads only, nothing else. You are right about everything else, like peripheral vision and it may discourage good defense for noobs that don't know that the headgear will not protect them from the power of the punch. I've seen kids wear headgear and just swing away at eachother, brawling it out, not knowing that the punches will hurt the same. I bet those newer headgears that cover the mouth, people think it's some kind of chin protector, they don't know that's just to now protect cuts in the lips.