Willie Pep and other defensive Wizards of our time

Pep, Locche, Whitaker, Benitez, and Floyd are the 5 best.

 

Floyd's not quite in the class of the other four. Canto, Zapata, Lora, Loughran and Kalambay all impress me slightly more from a defensive standpoint. Even fighters like Moore and especially Duran, who weren't even defensively orientated, impress me more.

Before the fan club jump on my back, Mayweather is an extremely good defensive fighter, but are little holes in his game that the other defensive specialists didn't have as much. The mechanics are there, but not the overall nous. No way did Locche, Pep, Benitez or Whitaker ever struggle with nullifying a basic, solid jab like Floyd has at times in his career. An old DLH was landing it almost at will against a prime Mayweather until he neglected to throw it, whilst the prime DLH couldn't even begin to do so against the fading version of Whitaker.

But I expect some stick anyway.

 

I tend to think that most of the great boxer punchers, skilled aggressors and ring generals around 135 to 147 would beat him more often than not, as would some of the better pure boxers. Castillo and DLH, both of whom are overrated themselves, were able to hit him relatively frequently throughout their respective fights. Even Hatton and Judah, who are both positively ordinary, gave him heavy weather early on before a mixture of indiscipline, **** refereeing and plain old averageness on their part(s) helped Floyd take over.

Funnily enough, though it utterly galls me to say it, I think that Mayweather has a good style with which to beat Locche, who was the greatest of all the defensive fighters but too lax with his own output at times. Floyd would also have given Arguello trouble at any weight I believe.

 

There was no one like Pep. Impossible to hit clean but also ferocious in his attack and a master jabber. One of the two or three greatest ever.

 

This is a very overlooked trait of his - fast, sharp punching in combination. Pep could knock a fighter out cold.

 

theres only footage of one Pep KO and its pretty rare - peach of a left hook to the body near tears Jimmy McAllister in half

 

Seen it mate, although not for ages. Infact there's a lot of stuff I lost. Youtube is great though, even if it is cheating a bit.

 

I have it on DVD, Youtube dosent work with me it crashes my computer after i watch 2 minutes of something.

For me Pep dosent have the greatest defence but he is the greatest defensive fighter. One thing that impresses me with Pep is that you hardly ever see him throw a single shot its mostly combinations.

 

Yeah, it was the whole package of speed, agility and a boxing brain. Angles, surprise shots, combination punches, and just a general natural ability. John Garfield once said Pep was a brilliant boxer even before he started.