Is Willie Pep 'The Greatest'?

atsch

 

Pep is top 10 greatest. He's the greatest defensive boxer ever. I think that Locche and Mayweather would have to fight over who got second place defensively. But I think that objectively for all around skills Pep would have to take backstage to Robinson, Armstrong, Greb, Langford, Duran, Walker, and possibly Charles, Gans, Benny Leonard, and Moore.

 

On one of the Ringside shows, Brian Kenny asked Angelo Dundee and Carmen Basilio who was the greatest boxer of all time, and they both said "Willie Pep." Kenny then dismissed them with something like, "You're going with the Italian."

 

No offense but you really need to research the topic more. For gods sake, you evn said there were no reports of Greb beating theh hell out of Tunney. That he could do that and have such close fights alone with Tunney is very telling of his greatness.

 

SRR would be the GOAT in terms of resume. Look at this list:

Basilio
Fullmer
Lamotta
Armstrong
Angott
Turpin
Graziano

 

I agree with this. wish i couldve been alive to witness Langfords greatness

 

Yes. For pure boxing skills, Pep is the best.

Pep fought SRR as a small boy. SRR won but couldn't do a damn thing to him. Too Slick.

 

Shouldn't all heavyweights be able to do this? How can you give Langford any respect for beating lightweight greats when he was a natural light heavyweight? I understand giving him respect for beating heavyweights who were bigger than him, but I wouldn't be impressed by Kovalev beating Pacquiao and Marquez.

 

He beat the lightweights whilst being a lightweight

He beat the welterweights whilst being a welterweight

He beat the middleweights whilst being a middleweight

And so on

There is this thing human bodies do called growing

Langford probably never fought anyone smaller then himself I'm not sure I'd have to look into it but he was nearly always the one at a weight disadvantage

 

He has a better resume than the self proclaimed TBE................thats for sure

 

1905-02-13 150 Dave Holly 137½
1911-08-15 180 Philadelphia Jack O'Brien 170
1913-09-09 185 John Lester Johnson 170
1913-10-03 199½ Joe Jeannette 195
1914-03-23 200 Bill Watkins 186
1914-05-25 186 Bill Watkins 180
1914-10-01 199½ Joe Jeannette 196
1916-03-31 190 Jeff Clark 176
1917-04-10 205 Jack Thompson 198
1919-04-30 197 Billy Hooper 163
1920-03-29 192 Jamaica Kid 171
Most of his fights we don't even have weights for.

 

Pep very well could be the greatest. Its a matter of opinion . I prefer duran. And ray robinson p4p

 

1905-02-13 150 Dave Holly 137½
1911-08-15 180 Philadelphia Jack O'Brien 170
1913-09-09 185 John Lester Johnson 170
1913-10-03 199½ Joe Jeannette 195
1914-03-23 200 Bill Watkins 186
1914-05-25 186 Bill Watkins 180
1914-10-01 199½ Joe Jeannette 196
1916-03-31 190 Jeff Clark 176
1917-04-10 205 Jack Thompson 198
1919-04-30 197 Billy Hooper 163
1920-03-29 192 Jamaica Kid 171
Most of his fights we don't even have weights for.

So he had a weight advantage in maybe 15-20 fights in a 300+ fight career he is famous in boxing history for giving up huge weight and size advantages and still winning

 

You said "Langford probably never fought anyone smaller then himself. " Well, there's 11 instances he was the bigger man. I didn't include two or three others. And since maybe one in five of his fights even has weights listed you can probably multiply those by five too.