Pernell Whitaker, criticized after previous fights for a risk-free style, hardly resembled a daredevil Saturday night.
"If people didn't like it, they have to take it up with the Professor (trainer George Benton)," Whitaker said after he proved Azumah Nelson's climb to the lightweight division too steep and retained his two 135-pound titles with a workmanlike, unanimous decision over the African champion. "He told me to fight the way I fought."Whitaker, the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation champion, improved to 22-1, but did little to earn him new admirers.
"I give him an A-plus," Benton said. "He boxed perfectly. He showboated a little and he paid for it, but he went right back to the gameplan after that."
Nelson, the WBC super featherweight titleholder who did not have his crown on the line, fell to 32-2.
Judge Dalby Shirley of Las Vegas had it 116-111, Harry Gibbs of England scored it 116-114 and Sid Nathan had it 115-113, all for Whitaker.
Nelson admired Whitaker's effort.
"I didn't fight an amateur--I fought a champion," he said. "I lost on points, He's a good fighter. >I don't take anything from him." The first two rounds were uneventful with each easily picking off punches and neigher landing a telling blow. Nelson, utilizing a cross-armed defense, opened up in the third round. Whitaker was backed into a neutral corner and slipped to the canvas after a Nelson flurry.
Whitaker outboxed Nelson with a series of right jabs in the fourth, then poked it through Nelson's gloves a few more times in the fifth. He closed the round with a right hook that caught Nelson flush on the cheek.
The champion's hand speed was more evident in the sixth round, but Nelson froze him early in the seventh with a left-right combination 35 seconds in.