THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Pernell ``Sweetpea'' Whitaker met the challenge and picked up yet another world title belt Saturday.
Now he will happily retreat to welterweight, where the attractive challenges he yearns for are lacking but he has steady work.
``I need to leave these big guys alone,'' Whitaker said after moving up to 154 pounds to wrest the World Boxing Association junior middleweight title from Julio Cesar Vasquez. It was Whitaker's sixth title in four weight classes, but he will eschew further dabbling at 154 and defend his World Boxing Council welterweight crown.
Whitaker was clearly the more skilled of the two men in the Atlantic City Convention Center ring. But he had never fought a man as large as the Argentinian, who probably outweighed Whitaker by 10 pounds or more at the opening bell.
``I'll tell you what, that guy is strong as hell,'' Whitaker trainer Ronnie Shields said of Vasquez. ``I looked at him at the weigh-in (Friday evening). I don't know what he ate, but he looked a whole lot bigger when he stepped in the ring.''
Whitaker was bigger than usual, and perhaps with the added bulk he lost a little quickness. Vasquez landed more solid blows than Whitaker (35-1-1) had absorbed in any of his previous 36 professional fights. Vasquez also dropped Whitaker in the fourth round, marking only the fourth time Whitaker has been down in his career.
Whitaker said he didn't take the full brunt of the blow and was caught off-balance.
``It really wasn't a knockdown,'' he said. ``I did go down, and it did happen to be slightly a punch.''
Vasquez (52-2) was more than a slight puncher, as Whitaker discovered.
``Right now I need to sit down,'' Whitaker said after standing for several minutes at the post-fight press conference.
Whitaker complained of soreness in the rib-cage area, which he said was either the result of a shot he took early in the fight or a slight muscle pull from overextending while throwing jab.
``You fight a guy who is bigger and stronger, and it's going to be a physical fight,'' Whitaker promoter Dan Duva said.
Still, as usual, Whitaker dominated on the scorecards. Two judges gave Whitaker eight rounds and one gave him 11. Referee Tony Orlando deducted two points from Vasquez, one for holding Whitaker behind the head and one for punching in the back of the head.
Most reporters at ringside scored the fight much closer than the judges' 116-110, 118-110 and 118-107 tabulations.
``The fight was never easy,'' Whitaker said.
There almost wasn't a fight at all. Vasquez threatened to pull out Saturday because of a dispute over taxes on his $500,000 purse. He wanted promoter Duva to pay the tax, which Duva said would come to somewhere between $70,000 to $100,000. Duva said negotiations were intense to persuade Vasquez to go through with the fight.
``I feel like I'm a great boxer and I lost to a great boxer,'' Vasquez said through an interpreter. ``He's the best boxer, pound-for-pound.''
Whitaker is not apt to be tested as well in his next outing, a mandatory defense of his WBC welterweight title against Scotland's Gary Jacobs. Jacobs (41-5), who fought on the undercard Saturday, is a pedestrian fighter who is probably not as good as many of Whitaker's sparring partners.
``I've seen him work out, and it's embarrassing for me to step in the ring with him,'' Whitaker said.
Whitaker hopes the fight can be held in Hampton Roads and said it might be his last chance to fight before a hometown crowd. The Duvas would like to do it at Harbor Park, although HBO may want to hold it in London to correspond with its coverage of Wimbledon.
After that fight in June or July, Whitaker will meet Ghana's Ike Quartey in a welterweight unification bout. Quartey, 25, fought on Saturday's undercard as well. The WBA welterweight champ (28-0) is an impressive talent.
Beyond 1995, Duva threw out the possibility of a match with rising star Oscar De La Hoya, a lightweight who would have to move up in weight. Whitaker has longed for a rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez since their September 1993 draw. And there has been talk in the Whitaker camp of pitting him against Roy Jones Jr.
``That's preposterous,'' Whitaker said. ``He's 168 pounds.''
Earlier in the week, someone asked Whitaker about the international flavor of his 1995 schedule with opponents from Argentina, Scotland and Ghana.
``I thought we'd give those European guys a shot,'' Whitaker said.
Europeans from Ghana and Argentina?
Being a six-time champion of the world doesn't make you a champion of world geography. by CNB