Did Willie Pep lack heart?

I'm talking about the fourth fight. Pep hadn't dislocated anything his time around. What is the actual story on this one? GreatA has it on supposedly good authority that Pep has since admitted to quitting because he didn't want to walk through fire for a further 6-7 rounds. That implies that Pep was the one who said he didn't want to continue, but I don't really know because it isn't clarified in the footage I watched. It's a little bit hazy.

I suppose it's a good comparison with the Vasquez/Marquez fight. That being said, it was a brutal fight, clean shots were landing with regularity, and Vasquez went as far to say he couldn't breathe. Not only that, but he'd go on to avenge that defeat twice later on. Maybe that's why he wasn't criticized, or maybe you're right, and I'm reading to much into it.

 

Yeah, I'm not really trying to call Willie Pep's heart into question in the context of his whole career. The man fought an inordinate amount of times, and I tend to think he would have faced adversity at some point along the way. We know he did in the second fight against Sandy Saddler, and he pulled it out. That being said, I guess my question is almost exclusive to the fourth fight now that we've have some facts clarified. He dislocated his shoulder in the third fight, so it's understandable that he'd be unable to continue. But what stopped him from coming out for the 10th in the fourth fight? Did he just want not want too?

 

He was cut severely? The footage I have, although pretty good considering it's time, still makes it very difficult to distinguish what sort of condition the two fighters were in.

As I say, Saddler may have been a hard hitter, but it was a rough and tumble sort of fight in the sense that it was dirty, not that hard shots were landing with regularity. I honestly didn't see Pep taking too much punishment, and the stoppage come as a complete shock to me.

 

Who was rarely landing.

Anyhow, I think this has been drained of all of it's content, no need to discuss it any further. Pep had fought for a very long time, and was lucky to even be fighting considering the plane crash he endured. The stoppage was just abrupt. I'm used to seeing a fighter quit when he had taken shed loads of punishment and is no longer in any position to win. Pep was most likely winning the fight, and wasn't getting hit all to often very cleanly.

 

I assume the consensus is that a prime Pep would have had the beating of any version of Saddler?

 

I believe him. He was hooking his feet around Saddler's in clinches.