Pernell Whitaker vs Jorge Paez

Pernell Whitaker retained the undisputed lightweight championship by defeating Jorge Paez on a unanimous decision over 12 rounds at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada, on October 5, 1991. Whitaker, who held the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, received scores of 116-110 from Keith MacDonald, 115-111 from Chuck Giampa and 115-112 from Patricia Morse Jarman. Referee Mills Lane handled a contest which contained two accidental clashes of heads and a point deduction against each man. Both fighters weighed exactly 135 pounds.

Whitaker entered with a record of 26 victories and one defeat and was a 7-1 favourite. Paez, the IBF’s leading challenger, stood at 38-3-4 and had previously held the organisation’s featherweight title. This was his second attempt to win a championship above that division, following his unsuccessful challenge against Tony Lopez at junior-lightweight. Whitaker was making the eighth defence of his IBF crown, the sixth of the WBC title and the third of the WBA belt. He earned $1 million and was fighting without Lou Duva in his corner for the first time as a professional because Duva was recovering from triple-bypass heart surgery.

The champion did not rely entirely upon the movement and long-range counter-punching for which he had become known. Paez advanced with his head low, changing rhythm and approaching from irregular angles, and Whitaker elected to meet him for long spells at close and middle distance. The southpaw worked deliberately to the body before bringing uppercuts through the centre whenever Paez bent forward. Whitaker took the first two rounds on all three official cards. Two judges also gave him the third, while Jarman scored it even. Paez’s pressure brought him the fourth on every card, although it was also the round in which Whitaker produced his most sustained combination. He struck Paez with nine successive punches, only for the Mexican to continue forward and answer with a leaping right hand which briefly shook the champion.

Whitaker resumed control in the fifth and sixth. He was not moving excessively, but his balance and accuracy allowed him to remain close without presenting Paez with a stationary target. Páez continued to bore in and throw heavily, yet Whitaker’s shorter punches generally reached the mark first. Near the end of the sixth, the fighters collided heads, opening a long cut through Paez’s right eyebrow. Lane halted the action in the following round so that the ringside doctor could examine the injury. The contest continued, but the cut required attention thereafter and added to the challenger’s difficulties. Whitaker took the fifth and sixth unanimously and was awarded the seventh by two of the three judges.

Paez persisted rather than allowing the damage to discourage him. His forward movement and willingness to exchange earned him the eighth round on the cards of Giampa and MacDonald, although Jarman preferred Whitaker’s work. The ninth was another disputed session: Giampa and MacDonald gave it to the champion, while Jarman sided with Paez. Whitaker remained the more accurate man, using his jab, body punches and uppercuts to intercept the challenger, but Paez’s awkward attacks occasionally disturbed his rhythm and prevented the bout from becoming a routine exhibition. Whitaker took the tenth on all three cards. During that round, another accidental clash opened a cut over Paez’s left eye, leaving the challenger marked on both sides of the face.

The final two rounds were complicated by fouls and in the 11th, Lane deducted a point from Whitaker for pulling down Paez’s head. Giampa and MacDonald therefore scored the round 10-8 for Paez, while Jarman returned 9-9, indicating that she had otherwise favoured Whitaker. Paez lost a point of his own in the 12th for punching on the break. MacDonald scored the last round 10-8 for Whitaker; the other two judges made it 9-9 after the deduction. Neither man had been knocked down, and Paez remained on his feet despite absorbing repeated clean combinations and fighting much of the second half with the cuts around his eyes.

Whitaker landed 312 of 895 punches, while Paez connected with 197 of 584. The challenger’s percentage was nearly equal to Whitaker’s, but the champion threw substantially more and landed 115 additional blows. The Associated Press scored the contest 117-109 for Whitaker, while the Los Angeles Times had it wider still at 119-108. The official margins were more restrained, but none left doubt about the result. Whitaker had been drawn into more trading than usual and had not stopped a durable challenger, yet he had matched Paez at close quarters while retaining his superiority in speed, timing and accuracy.

The victory proved to be Whitaker’s final appearance as a lightweight. He had gone the full distance in six of his previous seven contests and was finding the 135-pound limit increasingly difficult to make. With few lucrative challengers remaining in the division, his attention turned towards junior-welterweight and possible matches with Julio Cesar Chavez, Edwin Rosario or Hector Camacho. He left the lightweight championship with a distinguished record of defences and with all three major belts still in his possession. Paez had tested his composure, cut down the room in which he usually preferred to work and briefly hurt him in the fourth, but he could not match the champion’s sustained and accurate punching over the full 12 rounds.

I regard Pernell Whitaker’s win over Jorge Paez as one of those performances that showed he was far more than a defensive specialist. Paez came to make it rough, advancing with his head low and throwing from peculiar angles, but Whitaker stood his ground more than usual and beat him at close quarters.

The clever work was downstairs. Whitaker used body punches to slow Paez’s advance, then brought the uppercut through the middle whenever the Mexican dipped forward. In the fourth, he landed a long succession of clean shots, only for Paez to walk through them and briefly shake him with a leaping right. That told you plenty about Paez’s toughness, but it did not alter the direction of the fight.

The accidental clashes of heads left Paez cut around both eyes, yet he continued pressing. Whitaker never became flustered. His feet kept him balanced, his hands returned quickly to position, and he landed the cleaner punches throughout. Both men lost points for fouls late on, but the unanimous decision was beyond argument.

Paez was awkward, brave and difficult to discourage. Whitaker was simply operating at another level. It proved to be his final lightweight contest, and he left the division as its undisputed champion after comprehensively defeating a challenger whose style could have made an untidy night for almost anyone else.