Former world champion boxer who won gold at the 1984 OlympicsDuring debates about who is the best boxer of all time, the former four-weight world champion Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker is sometimes overlooked. He was not a fearsome puncher, nor was he a braggart who commanded headlines in the era before social media when newspaper reporters treasured outrageous quotes to sell a fight. But his peers always rated him among the sport’s elite.Whitaker, who has died aged 55 after being hit by a car while crossing a road in his hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was an Olympic gold medallist for the US at the Los Angeles games of 1984, after which he turned professional, first becoming a world champion as a lightweight in 1989. He eventually quit boxing in 2001, having fought in a total of 23 world title contests, of which he lost only three and drew one, in hugely controversial circumstances against the Mexican fighter Julio César Chávez. Continue readingread full article
