diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index df04ceeb0..ca03873e5 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1202,7 +1202,6 @@
 
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.AbstractParenPadCheck</pattern><branchRate>88</branchRate><lineRate>100</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.EmptyForInitializerPadCheck</pattern><branchRate>91</branchRate><lineRate>93</lineRate></regex>
-            <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck</pattern><branchRate>86</branchRate><lineRate>96</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.NoWhitespaceAfterCheck</pattern><branchRate>94</branchRate><lineRate>98</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.NoWhitespaceBeforeCheck</pattern><branchRate>90</branchRate><lineRate>100</lineRate></regex>
             <regex><pattern>.*.checks.whitespace.OperatorWrapCheck</pattern><branchRate>68</branchRate><lineRate>81</lineRate></regex>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheck.java b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheck.java
index b0dec5fcf..5f25655c9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheck.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheck.java
@@ -115,13 +115,17 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheck extends Check {
 
     @Override
     public void visitToken(DetailAST ast) {
-        if (ast.getType() == TokenTypes.GENERIC_START) {
-            processStart(ast);
-            depth++;
-        }
-        else if (ast.getType() == TokenTypes.GENERIC_END) {
-            processEnd(ast);
-            depth--;
+        switch (ast.getType()) {
+            case TokenTypes.GENERIC_START:
+                processStart(ast);
+                depth++;
+                break;
+            case TokenTypes.GENERIC_END:
+                processEnd(ast);
+                depth--;
+                break;
+            default:
+                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown type " + ast);
         }
     }
 
@@ -134,7 +138,7 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheck extends Check {
         final int before = ast.getColumnNo() - 1;
         final int after = ast.getColumnNo() + 1;
 
-        if (0 <= before && Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
+        if (before >= 0 && Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
                 && !Utils.whitespaceBefore(before, line)) {
             log(ast.getLineNo(), before, WS_PRECEDED, ">");
         }
@@ -168,7 +172,7 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheck extends Check {
         //   should be whitespace if followed by & -+
         //
         final int indexOfAmp = line.indexOf('&', after);
-        if (indexOfAmp != -1
+        if (indexOfAmp >= 0
             && whitespaceBetween(after, indexOfAmp, line)) {
             if (indexOfAmp - after == 0) {
                 log(ast.getLineNo(), after, WS_NOT_PRECEDED, "&");
@@ -201,10 +205,9 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheck extends Check {
             }
         }
         else if (!Character.isWhitespace(charAfter)
-            && '(' != charAfter && ')' != charAfter
-            && ',' != charAfter && '[' != charAfter
-            && '.' != charAfter && ':' != charAfter
-            && !isAfterMethodReference(ast)) {
+            && charAfter != '(' && charAfter != ')'
+            && charAfter != ',' && charAfter != '['
+            && charAfter != '.' && charAfter != ':') {
             log(ast.getLineNo(), after, WS_ILLEGAL_FOLLOW, ">");
         }
     }
@@ -248,7 +251,7 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheck extends Check {
         //                 ^           ^
         //      ws reqd ---+           +--- whitespace NOT required
         //
-        if (0 <= before) {
+        if (before >= 0) {
             // Detect if the first case
             final DetailAST parent = ast.getParent();
             final DetailAST grandparent = parent.getParent();
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheckTest.java b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheckTest.java
index 9d517e9c7..e85cf5204 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheckTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/checks/whitespace/GenericWhitespaceCheckTest.java
@@ -19,22 +19,25 @@
 
 package com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace;
 
-import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.BaseCheckTestSupport;
-import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.DefaultConfiguration;
+import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_FOLLOWED;
+import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_ILLEGAL_FOLLOW;
+import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_NOT_PRECEDED;
+import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_PRECEDED;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_FOLLOWED;
-import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck
-.WS_ILLEGAL_FOLLOW;
-import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck
-.WS_NOT_PRECEDED;
-import static com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.checks.whitespace.GenericWhitespaceCheck.WS_PRECEDED;
+import antlr.CommonHiddenStreamToken;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.BaseCheckTestSupport;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.DefaultConfiguration;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.DetailAST;
+import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.TokenTypes;
 
 public class GenericWhitespaceCheckTest
     extends BaseCheckTestSupport {
@@ -117,4 +120,24 @@ public class GenericWhitespaceCheckTest
                 + "checkstyle/whitespace/"
                 + "InputGenericWhitespaceMethodRef.java").getCanonicalPath(), expected);
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testGetAcceptableTokens() {
+        GenericWhitespaceCheck genericWhitespaceCheckObj = new GenericWhitespaceCheck();
+        int[] actual = genericWhitespaceCheckObj.getAcceptableTokens();
+        int[] expected = new int[] {
+            TokenTypes.GENERIC_START,
+            TokenTypes.GENERIC_END,
+        };
+        Assert.assertNotNull(actual);
+        Assert.assertArrayEquals(expected, actual);
+    }
+
+    @Test(expected = IllegalArgumentException.class)
+    public void testWrongTokenType() {
+        GenericWhitespaceCheck genericWhitespaceCheckObj = new GenericWhitespaceCheck();
+        DetailAST ast = new DetailAST();
+        ast.initialize(new CommonHiddenStreamToken(TokenTypes.INTERFACE_DEF, "interface"));
+        genericWhitespaceCheckObj.visitToken(ast);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputGenericWhitespaceCheck.java b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputGenericWhitespaceCheck.java
index 0a5ba07fc..4386feea5 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputGenericWhitespaceCheck.java
+++ b/src/test/resources/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/whitespace/InputGenericWhitespaceCheck.java
@@ -62,4 +62,19 @@ class InputGenericWhitespaceCheck implements Comparable<InputGenericWhitespaceCh
 
     public static class IntEnumValueType3<E extends Enum<E>  & IntEnum> {
     }
+
+    public static class IntEnumValueType4<T extends Comparable<List<T>> & IntEnum> {
+    }
+
+    public void beforeAndAfter() {
+        List
+<
+Integer> x = new ArrayList<Integer
+>();
+        List
+        <Integer> y = new ArrayList<Integer
+        >();
+        Map<Class<?>, Integer> a = new HashMap<Class<?>, Integer>();
+        Map<Class<?>, Integer> b = (Map<Class<?>, Integer>) a;
+    }
 }