Note: The following is the second of a series of book excerpts detailing fights chronicled in Lee Groves' book "Tales From the Vault." The bout profiled -- Pernell Whitaker's come-from-behind 11th round TKO of Diosbelys Hurtado on January 24, 1997 -- is the final fight in Chapter 10, which is entitled "Back from the Brink: Great Comebacks."
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By Lee Groves
When a historian gauges a great fighter’s worth he asks several questions. How did his physical skills measure up to those of his peers? Was he so dominant over his opponents that he could rightly lay claim to an era as opposed to a small slice of time? How did he perform against his best opponents? Finally, does he possess that special brand of fortitude and resourcefulness needed to bail himself out of adverse situations?
By the time Pernell Whitaker signed to meet Diosbelys Hurtado on January 24, 1997 at the Convention Center in Atlantic City, he was considered by most measures a great fighter. At his peak, he was regarded as one of history’s greatest defensive masters and was one of a select few to have won belts in four weight divisions. He had registered eight defenses of the IBF lightweight title he won from Greg Haugen in February 1989 and before moving up to 140 in 1992 he managed to become the first undisputed 135-pound champion since Roberto Duran. Whitaker proceeded to win the IBF junior welterweight title from Rafael Pineda, the WBC welterweight title from James "Buddy" McGirt and the WBA junior middleweight belt from Julio Cesar Vazquez.
Despite his accomplishments, one aspect of Whitaker’s resume remained unresolved – how would he react if he found himself in a desperate situation? Whitaker’s polished skills enabled him to breeze through even the best of his opponents, and though his record read 39-1-1 (16 KO), an excellent case could be made that he should have been 41-0. The split decision defeat to Jose Luis Ramirez in March 1988 is regarded as one of the most scandalous verdicts of the 1980s while his draw to Julio Cesar Chavez in 1993 ranks with the very worst of the 1990s.
Early in his career, many observers thought Roger Mayweather would serve as a good barometer of Whitaker’s worth, and though "The Black Mamba" scored a ninth-round knockdown Whitaker won a rather easy decision. After Whitaker virtually shut out Ramirez in their August 1989 rematch, future Hall of Famer Azumah Nelson presented the next great threat to Whitaker’s reign. The Ghanaian, who was attempting to win his third divisional championship, applied heavy pressure throughout but Whitaker was never in any true danger as he sliced and diced his way to a decision. Even the 87-0 Chavez, the consensus pound-for-pound best at the time, wasn’t able to ruffle Whitaker’s feathers. There was uneasiness among experts about Whitaker’s fistic profile because while Whitaker impressed, he was never pressed.
When Whitaker stepped between the ropes against Hurtado, there was a groundswell of opinion that the 33-year-old’s skills were beginning to sour. He spent his entire 1996 campaign dealing with tall, strong Puerto Rican Wilfredo Rivera, who pushed Whitaker to a split decision in their first fight in April and a close unanimous decision in September. While insiders thought Hurtado was a somewhat dangerous choice, he wasn’t considered dangerous enough to keep Main Events from committing Whitaker to a superfight with Oscar de la Hoya 10 weeks down the road. In fact, De La Hoya was in the audience to check out his opponent as well as help HBO hype the showdown.
As for Hurtado, he had already faced his share of adversity though in the ring he was 20-0 with 13 knockouts. Because he was Cuba’s top amateur at his weight, he had the chance to see the world beyond Fidel Castro – and he began to doubt Castro’s Communist propaganda. In Cuba, he lived in a home without electricity, running water or television while the countries he visited had those amenities and much more. So in November 1994, following a tournament meet in Connecticut, he contacted a Cuban exile and arranged a meeting at the hotel where he and the rest of the team were staying. He waited until everyone was asleep before he exited the room, stepped onto an elevator, met his contact and walked out into a strange – but free – new world. Hurtado was one of six Cuban boxers to defect, and they settled in Miami to form the nucleus of "Team Freedom." Hurtado was the first member of the group to receive a title shot, and as he entered the Convention Center ring to face by far the most accomplished opponent of his young pro career, he wore a look of quiet confidence.
The gulf in experience was staggering. In Hurtado’s 20-fight pro career he had fought a total of 81 rounds. Whitaker’s experience in championship fights alone – 214 rounds – more than tripled Hurtado’s entire professional life. But Hurtado had advantages as well. At 5-11 he was five inches taller and his 74-inch wingspan was a full nine inches longer than that of the champion.
He also had the element of surprise, and that was apparent mere moments after the first bell sounded.
Hurtado threw a jab to the body that prompted Whitaker to drop both gloves to chest level. Seeing the opening, Hurtado cracked a right to Whitaker’s exposed jaw – and down went the champion. Just five seconds into the fight, before anyone had a chance to settle in, the heavily favored champion with a superfight on the horizon had fallen heavily onto the seat of his pants. It was quite a concept to wrap one’s mind around, but Whitaker immediately jumped to his feet and took referee Arthur Mercante Jr.’s mandatory eight count with a wide, wry smile on his face. Though the knockdown was clearly of the flash variety, it sent a powerful message that Hurtado was intent on ruining the party scheduled for April 12.
When the fighters were brought back together, Hurtado proceeded to unveil his strategy. He used his lively legs to motor around the ring from side to side while constantly throwing lead rights and swift unpredictable combinations. It was a blueprint that had been used before by Poli Diaz five-and-a-half years earlier, but unlike the shorter Diaz Hurtado had the physical equipment to maximize it. By doing so, he forced Whitaker to assume the uncomfortable role of aggressor and the man regarded as one of the great defensive masters of all time was reduced to chasing his opponent and firing lefts that fell far short of the mark.
Another part of Hurtado’s strategy was to unsettle the control-oriented champion by using foul tactics. After Hurtado landed a left uppercut to the jaw, Whitaker fell into a clinch, where the Cuban then whacked the back of Whitaker’s head. The move drew a strong response from Mercante, but it had its intended effect. After Hurtado missed with a five-punch flurry, Whitaker nailed Hurtado with a hook to the jaw after Mercante called for a break, drawing a warning as well.
Nothing was going right for the champion and he was clearly frustrated. Whitaker had made a living frustrating other fighters with his highly evolved defensive prowess and now the shoe was on the other foot. It was a startling role reversal: Whitaker was in with a younger, faster, harder-hitting opponent who was stronger at the weight and now he served as the plodding foil who was subject to his opponent’s will. This fight was supposed to serve as Whitaker’s showcase for the big money fight with De La Hoya, but Hurtado’s formidable opening sequence turned the event into a struggle for survival.
It was going to be a long, difficult night for Whitaker and he was none too pleased. After the first round bell sounded, a smirking Whitaker made sure to walk into Hurtado’s path and bump shoulders with him. Hurtado, who unlike Whitaker was intensely focused on the task before him, ignored the gesture and calmly made his way back to the corner.
Hurtado was back on his bicycle in the second, and Whitaker attempted to cut off the escape routes behind his jab. As the challenger threw a right-left, Whitaker caught him with a solid left cross that made him take a couple of jittery steps backward. The Cuban quickly recovered and continued to apply the game plan. His multi-punch flurries mostly missed the target, but it kept Whitaker at a safer distance. The psychological warfare also continued as Whitaker pulled out an old trick by spinning behind Hurtado and patting him twice on the behind. The edgy Hurtado retaliated by firing a jab to the face over Mercante’s shoulder. As Mercante warned Whitaker, the champion looked down at the floor and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "what else am I going to do?"
Hurtado dove in behind a right and his head nearly clashed with Whitaker’s, drawing a complaint from the champion and a warning from Mercante. It was abundantly clear that the son of Hall of Fame referee Arthur Mercante Sr. was going to earn his money this night.
Still, Hurtado was fighting a brilliantly awkward fight. He punched in flurries, clinched at opportune times and caught Whitaker with blows that normally would have deflected off the champion’s defensive shell. His head and shoulder feints short-circuited Whitaker’s defensive pattern, forcing him to totally rewire his style on the fly.
"(Hurtado is fighting) like a jazz musician at a rock concert," HBO color commentator George Foreman said. Hurtado was forcing the 33-year-old Whitaker to work every second of every round, and he had to do so without his considerable bag of tricks. In order to win and get a chance to cash in against "The Golden Boy," Whitaker had to transform himself from a slickster who benefited from the mistakes of others into a fighter who had to force the action and break another man’s will.
Meanwhile, Hurtado was feeling great and as he awaited the start of the third round he leaped off his stool and bounded into the air like a human pogo stick. His plan was working to perfection and was already three points up on most scorecards. In the third, Whitaker, resigned to his stylistic fate, tried to make the best of his situation by turning up the pressure and punching with Hurtado whenever the challenger unleashed a flurry. Whitaker was totally committed to being the aggressor and he waded in with little regard for what was coming back at him. The confident Hurtado did a little "Ali shuffle," which drew boos from the crowd, and moments later Whitaker hit Hurtado with a solid left as the Cuban spun away. Whitaker enjoyed a better third round and was starting to acclimate to his new situation.
Trainer Ronnie Shields attempted to further clarify the revised game plan between rounds three and four.
"You’ve got to keep the pressure on him," he said. "Feint with the guy and your hands have got to be high. And look, snap that jab! You can’t just lay a jab out there. Feint him and throw a head hook. Fast punches, forget the power, fast punches, all right?"
In the fourth, Hurtado combined his hit-and-run tactics with guerrilla warfare. He countered a Whitaker jab by launching a wild four-punch flurry that extricated him from the ropes and drove Whitaker back to ring center. But late in the round, Whitaker found a glimmer of hope as he nailed Hurtado with a heavy right to the hip that made the challenger yell. As the bell round, Hurtado drove a low left to the thigh that doubled Whitaker over. Mercante told him that the next low blow would bring a point penalty.
Whitaker’s corner, however, had reason to be encouraged. "Sweet Pete" had just won his first round and his late-round body shot proved to be a revelation.
"I’ve been watching him," Lou Duva said. "Every time you hit him to the body he picks his legs up. You gotta go to the body with this guy!"
But in the fifth, Hurtado’s movement didn’t give Whitaker much of a chance to attack the ribs. While on the ropes, Hurtado weaved his body left, then right before unleashing a huge right that nearly drove Whitaker to his knees. But the champion saved himself by grabbing Hurtado around the waist and hauling himself back upright. Moments later, Hurtado whacked a right to the ribs and briefly doubled Whitaker over and pivoted away to ring center by placing his right hand between Whitaker’s arms and spinning in a tight circle. He might not have had as much championship experience, but his deep amateur background taught him much about the ways of the ring.
Whitaker was growing more frustrated with his situation and that angst manifested itself in increasingly obvious ways. After bulling Hurtado to the ropes, he grabbed the Cuban’s left thigh and lifted it in the air while banging a short right to the ribs. Moments later, Whitaker fired an intentionally low left to Hurtado’s protective cup.
Halfway through the round, Whitaker landed a clean left cross to the jaw, his best punch of the fight so far. But Hurtado was unhurt and he proved it by clanging a right off Whitaker’s temple. Whitaker sneaked in another low left, and Hurtado countered a missed right-left with a wild windmilling six-punch flurry. A decent left pushed Hurtado toward the ropes, but the challenger landed a right-left to the body, with the right straying low.
The fight was dissolving into a foul-fest and after Hurtado pushed down on Whitaker’s neck with his left arm while whacking him with a right to the back, Mercante’s patience reached its end. The New York referee assessed a point penalty, potentially erasing the advantage he gained with the first-round knockdown. Hurtado tried to make up for it by firing a five-punch flurry, then an 11-punch burst before ending the round with a chopping right as Whitaker came in.
The dirty fighting continued midway through the sixth as Whitaker sunk a left to the hip that forced Hurtado to his knees. He wore a rueful smile as he waited out the 20-second timeout, but things were about to get worse for Whitaker.
With 1:12 remaining, Hurtado backed toward the ropes and as Whitaker advanced, Hurtado fired a quick left to the cheek that dropped Whitaker to a knee. Whitaker grabbed the sides of his head and shouted an agonized "no!" as Mercante pointed Hurtado to a neutral corner and began administering his second eight-count. Whitaker knew that the knockdown added another brick to his growing mathematical burden. Still, the only thing that was hurt was his pride so Hurtado continued to stick and move for the rest of the round. As the bell sounded, Whitaker complained to Mercante about a perceived foul while Hurtado walked to his corner with his right arm in the air.
De La Hoya wore a grim expression as he arose from his seat and put on the HBO headset. With Whitaker falling further behind on the scorecards, he feared his April date with "Sweet Pete" was in severe jeopardy.
"I’m stilling crossing my fingers," De La Hoya said with more hope than conviction. "I’m kinda shaky now, but I think Whitaker will do well. He’s having trouble with him, but he’ll come on in the later rounds."
The instant after De La Hoya spoke those words, Hurtado nailed Whitaker with a right to the jaw. The two knockdowns were of the flash variety, but this time Whitaker was legitimately hurt. He sought to collect himself while in a clinch as his personal hole grew ever deeper.
De La Hoya and everyone else who wanted the April fight to happen were sweating bullets because they knew Whitaker’s history. Whitaker always built huge leads in the early and middle rounds then took advantage of his opponents’ mistakes as they tried to turn the fight in the late rounds. Now it was Whitaker’s turn to bail himself out, and because he had never scored a knockout past the sixth round the prospects of a fight-saving rally were dim at best. To close the gap on the scorecards, Whitaker would need some help from Hurtado.
With 1:44 remaining in the seventh, Whitaker got some. A moment after blasting Whitaker with a right Hurtado spun behind the champion and landed a rabbit punch, drawing his second point deduction from Mercante. Whitaker held out his arms, willing to accept Hurtado’s apology. But an angry Hurtado was in no mood to do so as he popped Whitaker with a quick right to the body and left to the jaw. Whitaker turned to Mercante for help, but the referee judged that Hurtado simply took advantage of an opening Whitaker gave him.
Then Whitaker received a stronger sign of hope. A solid left landed on Hurtado’s jaw and a second chopping left appeared to stun the Cuban. In the ensuing clinch, Hurtado raised his eyebrows in surprise. As the round closed, Whitaker slammed home a looping left, a right and a parting left that forced Hurtado to hold on. The late-round rally showed Whitaker he could hurt Hurtado, and both men found themselves at an important crossroads. For Whitaker, the task was obvious but Hurtado also had to answer an important question: Now that the adrenaline of being a title challenger had worn off, did he have the poise to catch a second wind and snuff out a desperate champion’s rally?
The eighth round saw Whitaker fight with more confidence, and Hurtado didn’t retaliate after Whitaker landed a strong left to the face and a hurtful left to the body. Hurtado caught Whitaker with a right as the champion barreled in and whaled away with blows that caught Whitaker’s arms. But Whitaker was timing Hurtado’s rushes better and took advantage of the openings Hurtado’s misses provided. It appeared Whitaker had found a formula to prevail, and his corner knew as much.
"You’re not fighting on heart, you’re fighting on experience," Shields told Whitaker between rounds.
Though Whitaker had closed the gap in rounds seven and eight, Whitaker’s mathematical mountain again grew steeper in the ninth. With 1:09 remaining, Whitaker cracked Hurtado with a strong left to the jaw, but as Hurtado spun out of the corner he turned his back and retreated to ring center. Whitaker, in hot pursuit, threw two blows from behind. The first was blocked by Hurtado’s glove but the second landed in back of the ear. Because they looked like rabbit punches Mercante deducted a point from an aghast Whitaker, who raised his gloves to his head with open-mouthed surprise. Hurtado, his spirits lifted, punctuated a four-punch flurry with a solid left to the jaw and ended the stanza by connecting with a short right. The point deduction couldn’t have come at a better time for Hurtado or at a worse juncture for Whitaker, and each man was beginning to get a clearer picture of his ultimate fate. After a 10th round that saw Hurtado pelt a lunging Whitaker with two- and three-punch flurries, the challenger was ahead on all scorecards. John Stewart had the challenger leading 93-92 while Lazaro Carrasco saw the contest 94-92. Sergio Silvi viewed Hurtado as an unassailable winner at 96-91 and many in the crowd – including Oscar de la Hoya – were wrapping their minds around the possibility that the Whitaker-De La Hoya dream fight would remain only a dream.
"You need a knockout to win the fight," Shields told Whitaker matter-of-factly. Then he broke out the verbal whip: "You gotta get on top of this guy. You’ve got to let both hands go on this guy. You can’t just throw one hand. You need a knockout to win the fight. Everything you’ve got now, you’ve got to go ‘I need these last two rounds.’ You’ve got to put the pressure on this kid. You’ve got to show the kid who’s boss. You’ve got to let your hands go."
But it was Hurtado who tried to show who was boss as the 11th began as he threw a combination and clinched. After Mercante commanded them to break, the desperate Whitaker popped Hurtado with a short right that drew a warning to "keep it clean." Whitaker caught Hurtado with two long lefts and the Cuban retaliated with a chopping right that forced a clinch. Whitaker banged a left to the body and an overhand left to the face, but none of the blows seemed to faze Hurtado much.
With less than five minutes remaining in the fight the clock had, for once, become an enemy for Whitaker. He was finally placed in the type of crisis situation that tested the mettle of all great champions and commanded them to produce the grace under pressure that transformed the greats of the game into bona fide legends. Sugar Ray Robinson saw his legacy flash before his badly cut eyes in his rematch with Randy Turpin and he responded by hammering his onetime conqueror into submission. Julio Cesar Chavez stared certain defeat in the face in his first match with Meldrick Taylor, and whether one agrees with Richard Steele’s stoppage or not, Chavez still created the situation by producing a knockdown in the bout’s final seconds. Jake LaMotta was out-boxed by Laurent Dauthuille for 14-plus rounds, but saved his championship with a tidal wave of punches to score the knockout with just 13 seconds left on the clock.
Did Pernell Whitaker have it in him to save himself, save his title and complete his fistic resume?
The answer came with 1:23 remaining in the 11th in most resounding fashion.
Whitaker fell short with a right jab as Hurtado backed toward the corner pad, but that missed jab helped Whitaker tee up a monstrous left that snapped Hurtado’s head and collapsed his legs. The stricken challenger fell into the corner pad and was completely at Whitaker’s mercy – and "Sweet Pete" had none. Whitaker unleashed nine consecutive overhand lefts like a woodchopper whaling away at a mighty sequoia, his eyes ablaze with fury and a snarl creasing his lips. Hurtado’s upper body fell between the second and third strands of rope and only Mercante’s intervention – which could have come several seconds sooner – put a stop to Whitaker’s animalistic assault. At 1:52 of round 11, Whitaker was declared the winner and he earned the right not only to face De La Hoya in April, but also the privilege of calling himself a champion of the highest order.
"It’s not over until we say it’s over," Whitaker told HBO’s Larry Merchant. "I believe what my corner tells me. I didn’t look past Hurtado, but I knew there was something bigger and better beyond him so I had to go through him. I couldn’t go over or around the opponent, I had to go through him to get to Oscar. Oscar deserves the title shot, but I’m still the champion."
Indeed he was, and no matter what would happen against "The Golden Boy" in 78 days, he would always remain a true champion.
Epilogue: Whitaker lost the WBC welterweight title to De La Hoya in a verdict that is debated to this day, not only due to the result but because the judges saw De La Hoya a winner by four, six and six points. In fact, the Hurtado fight was the last official win of Whitaker’s career.
Six months after dropping the belt to De La Hoya Whitaker was announced as a decision winner over Andrei Pastraev, but the result was changed to a no-decision after Whitaker tested positive for cocaine. Sixteen months later Whitaker challenged a peak Felix Trinidad for the IBF welterweight title, showing incredible grit by fighting more than half the fight with a broken jaw before dropping a wide unanimous decision. On April 27, 2001 at Caesars Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, the 37-year-old Whitaker lost by fourth round TKO to Carlos Bojorquez after suffering a broken clavicle. Whitaker’s final record is 40-4-1 (17 KO) and was inducted – along with Roberto Duran and Ricardo Lopez – into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2007.
After losing to Whitaker, Hurtado won his next eight fights to earn a shot at Kostya Tszyu’s WBC interim super lightweight title. Hurtado suffered a knockdown in the first round but decked Tszyu twice in that same round before losing by fifth round TKO. Hurtado earned a third title opportunity after going 6-0-1 in his next seven bouts, with the technical draw coming to future welterweight and junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga. This time Hurtado made good as he whacked out WBA champion Randall Bailey in seven rounds. He lost the belt in his first defense to Vivian Harris (KO by 2) and would never again challenge for a belt. Following the loss to Bailey, Hurtado scored three knockout wins before taking a three-year hiatus. As of January 2010, the 36-year-old Hurtado is 4-0 on his comeback, with his most recent fight a unanimous 12 round decision over Manuel Garnica in June 2009 that raised his record to 42-3-1 (25 KO).
To purchase Lee Groves' book "Tales From the Vault: A Celebration of 100 Boxing Closet Classics," visit the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Vault-Celebration-Boxing-Classics/dp/1449965601
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