OFFENSE vs DEFENSE: Henry Armstrong vs Willie Pep @ Featherweight

What "newspaper championship"?? He UNIFIED the title, and it means/meant quite a bit.

 

I'm still waiting for him to explain his gibberish about Azumah Nelson and Jesse James Leija having fought 20 times

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5112700&postcount=16

:huh

 

Let me tell you something about this damned thread....I wish I'd thought of it. Maybe the most intriguing fantasy h2h I've seen on here. My first instinct is to favor Pep but not that strongly. If I ever become a god, I'll make this fight happen immediately for my own amusement.

 

Those dam troglodytes still don't get it. :hat

 

Armstrong. Pep can't finesse this one.

 

Hank was around 25 years old, and weighed 124 for Sarron (if boxwreck is to be believed). Coming in two pounds under the limit suggests that he moved up in weight purely by choice, not necessity. I know I'm not the only poster on the Classic Forum who's noticed how tiny the cast of his fist at Canastota is. This may indeed have been his most natural weight.

Willie would have been taking relentless body punishment in this one, too much to overcome.

 

Armstrong was a natural 130 pounder. He easily made featherweight.

 

Yes, he did indeed come in at 124. I have a NY Times account of the fight that confirms it.

According to the report, Sarron tore into Armstrong with both guns blazing through the first 4 rounds, perhaps figuring or hoping that making weight had weakened Armstrong. The strategy backfired because Armstrong showed no apparent sign of being weakened and then gradually picked apart Sarron with accurate counterpunches before surprisingly KOing him in the 6th.