I find it hard to rank him personally and put a judgment on how great he actually was. His wins over Pep are impressive, but Pep was past his best and had come through a near death experience. Yet still managed to defeat him once. His tactis in the last two Pep wins were also questionable...... He was a devastating puncher and a freak of nature. But at times he was also inconsist and lost fights that I feel he shoudnt of lost to some medicore oppostition even while champion. Any reasons why he would lose every now and then in non title bouts to questionable fighters? I often see him extremly high in ATG lists. And higher than some fighters I dont think he should be. Disucss
No they werent, that was how he always fought and in the fourth fight Pep was doing most of it, if you did want to bring out the points in the 3rd and 4th fights you would mention how Pep was out boxing him and winning both times before retiring in his corner.
I don't think that's a valid excuse for what he did though. Saddler bent the rules more so than any fighter I've seen on film. Now I agree that Pep did do most of it in the 4th fight but I believe that was his strategy to compete against Saddler's ring tactics. It's no excuse though, the 4th fight was a farce. Saddler's defensive abilities were very mediocre and he could be outpointed if he could not get his man out of there. Flash Elorde, George Araujo, Joey Lopes, Del Flanagan were all good boxers and Saddler was never truly shut out by any of them, he remained competitive even in losing. He only lost one 15 round fight to the great Willie Pep. Against Charley Riley (who was actually KO'd in 5 by Willie Pep), after getting manhandled and beaten up in the early rounds, he displayed some underrated boxing ability to capture a majority decision. One has to wonder why he did not do that in the majority of his bouts. He'd rather walk his opponents down and rough them up in the clinches.
Kind of a goofy post. Saddler is easily one of the best feathers ever. when you fight lightweights and over the top matches in THAT era, you can sure lose some. And all a champion has to do is come out of the ring w/ the title, nothing else pays. Long live the true champs like Saddler and Pedroza.:smoke
Its not an excuse the thread started merely mentioned that he won these 2 bouts using dirty tactics, why not mention the others? Also you think Saddler is dirtier than Zivic? As it turns out i have this fight on DVD, but theres sod all chance you will get it from me. Indeed
