[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a_wt60Wn9M[/ame] The way Willie Pep utilized movement and took angles was unmatched. His style was so smooth, so graceful, almost effortless. His combination punching terrific, his jab was like a pistol the way he quintuplets up on it. His right hand was like a snipe shot out of nowhere. The scary thought is most of the film you see above is Pep while past his prime! :shock: I am equally impressed with the way he virtually cleaned out one division for an entire decade. He beat pretty much everyone important in the RING MAGAZINE top 10 featherweight rankings throughout the 40s. Many of them very good fighters, some Hall of Famers. I rate Willie Pep # 1 featherweight of all time. But perhaps he deserves more. He is in contention for the greatest fighter of all time in my estimation.
I was lucky to see Willie Pep in his great prime in 1943, MSG...As I posted before, Willie Pep before his plane crash in 1947, was unhittable...He has a sixth sense 0f what his opponents next moves would be, always ONE STEP AHEAD, and acted accordingly...Willie frustrated whover he fought, and was truly "the will of the wisp'..Some opponent said "you cant hit Willie in the behind,with a handful of rice", so quick was he...After the plane crash in 1947, Pep was never as quick, as he had been as witnessed in his losses to gangly and cruel punching Sandy Saddler in 1948...The Pep I saw at his peak in 1943,fast and slick would have surly licked Sandy Saddler, I am convinced...Pep right after Ray Robinson, was the 2 best fighters I ever saw ringside...
As far as integrating the difficult to master fundamentals like feinting, angling, turning the opponent, etc, Pep was certainly one of the most skilled and innately talented boxers I've ever seen. What's all the more impressive is that outside of a 10 min. clip of him against Ralph Walton in '45 I believe, no footage of him exists pre-plane crash. We can only extrapolate based on what we've seen as to how good he'd have been in his prime. A true master, no doubt.
No, I just saw Willie Pep in 1943 at MSG,beating a top lightweight Allie Stolz, in spectacular fashon...Sammy angott [the clutch] ,a lightweight champion, mauled and clutched the 126 pound Pep for Willie's first loss...Angott, would have made life difficult for even Duran, he was in close to you, awkward and strong, a toughie for any lightweight, let alone a 126 pounder...No I never saw the great Manuel Ortiz ,who lost to Pep in 1944...Manuel Ortiz was a great fighter and Bantamweight champ, forgotten today, sadly...But the prime ,young Willie Pep, can never be duplicated, I believe...B.B.
a true artist, one of the best. I'd like to see his amatuer bout with Sugar Ray, is there any footage of that anywhere?
If the Pep/Angott fight was ever filmed,I know not....But what accounts I heard then,Angott just smothered and wrestled the lighter Pep..It was not an exciting fight, but Pep always detested Sammy Angott for his tactics, and breaking Willies winning streak...Pep soon went on another winning streak tear... Incidentally, in 1944 Pep whipped a great lightweight from Chicago,named Willie Joyce ,who I saw in NY...Joyce was a TOP lightweight in the great 1940s era who beat the great Ike Williams three times..He just had Ike's number ...Well Pep licked Willie Joyce, spotting Joyce many pounds...A most impressive win for Willie Pep...b.b.
