Well, being down on pts to Pep is really the way it is when you fight Pep. Willie barely won the second fight and was chopped up by Saddler in the others. It's not 1-1 in any way at all...
Pep won 10 out of the 15 rounds, I would not call that "barely". he was fouled by saddler dirty tactics on the inside. Pep got his shoulder dislocated, and his eye nearly ripped out from saddlers thumbing.
Some memories spring to mind when I look at this thread. Knew both Saddler and Pep pretty well. Willie was a born stand-up comic -- a laugh-a-minute in the gym or at a gin mill -- never without a drink or a smoke in his hand. Money was for spendin'. Nothin' was outta bounds; everything was a joke. (Except when he became a trainer: Jekel turned into Hyde in the blink of an eye) Sandy was just the opposite: a fiercly proud man. Clung to his place in history. Over 20 years after he hung'em up, he was still at his fighting weight, and had a don't-****-with-me presence. Used to run in Central Park with him. If Pep's name came up from anybody, he bristled. The subject was still a sore spot with him.
If this question is for me, ds, Pep and Saddler were 180%s different in and out of the ring. RJ and Tarver are much alike in some ways: both talk smack and showboat.
A fair, damn-good question, ds. I think if others gave it some real consideration, they'd have the same dilemma. Myself, I'm partial to Jones. Be interested to hear what others think, and their reasoning.
Whilst Saddler's reputation rests heavily on the Pep wins, it's disanalogous from the Tarver-Jones situation for a couple of reasons: 1. Jones was further past it against Tarver than Pep was against Saddler. Jones around that time would have lost to any other semi-competent fighter imo. Pep was still beating everyone not named Sandy Saddler around the time Saddler was beating him. 2. Outside of the Pep wins, Saddler still had some excellent wins. Whilst I think much of Saddler's reputation as an elite p4p'er rests on the Pep victories, he also had some other excellent wins against quality opposition in their prime. Tarver has Jones and a number of past their prime fighters who even at their best were never more than very good (e.g. Reggie Johnson, Montell Griffin). In a nutshell, Tarver is just about no one without Jones, this is definitely not the case with Saddler. As I said, I don't think Saddler would be top 50 p4p without Pep, but Tarver would be just about nothing without Jones and to tell the truth I don't think he's that much even WITH Jones on his ledger.