Whitaker and Quarterly both feel confident

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 11:33 a.m.

Neither man thinks beating the other will be all that difficult.

That's confidence for you, yet both Pernell Whitaker and Ike Quartey figure to have their hands full when they square off April 25 at the Thomas & Mack Center for a boxing card sponsored by Caesars Palace.

The veteran champions will be fighting for Quartey's World Boxing Association welterweight title.

"He can make it hard on himself, or he can make it easy," Whitaker said Thursday by phone from New York City, where the fight was formally announced. "Either way, I win."

Whitaker, 34, is a former IBF and WBC lightweight champion, a former IBF junior welterweight champion, a former WBC welterweight champion, a former WBA junior middleweight champion, and, most recently, a former WBC welterweight champion.

Quartey, 28, has held the WBA welterweight championship since June of 1994.

Whitaker is 41-2-1 with losses to Jose Luis Ramirez in 1988 and Oscar De La Hoya last year.

Quartey is 34-0-1 with the draw coming late last year against Jose Luis Lopez.

"It's a good test for me but I don't think beating him will be very hard," Quartey said before Whitaker got on the phone. "I want to beat Whitaker because he doesn't really want to fight me. I want to knock him out."

Quartey, of Ghana, is a noted puncher with 29 knockouts. Yet he has had some difficulty in the past with left-handers, and, you guessed it, Whitaker is a southpaw.

"I know," Quartey agreed in his halting English.

And even though he anticipates winning, he believes Whitaker is still a quality fighter with multiple strengths.

"He's a good fighter," Quartey said. "Everybody says he's not good anymore, but I think he's still good."

Whitaker picked up on the same theme as he came on the line.

"Why shouldn't I win?" he asked. "I'm a better fighter than he is. I've fought better people. I've still got a ways to go. Why wouldn't I beat him too?"

Whitaker, of Norfolk, Va., has but 17 wins by knockout and is better known as an elusive mover. He is hard to hit and he thinks that is what makes his fight with a big hitter interesting.

"This will be a great show," he said. "The boxer and the puncher. It'll be the greatest show on earth."