Give him a chance to outpoint? Sublime skills while being nearly untouchable are nightmarish combination in the ring. And we recently saw what Manny Pacquiao, who once fought at weights as lowe as 108 pounds, was doing against Oscar De La Hoya by... gasp... boxing! So who's the biggest and best fighter you'd give Pep a shot at outpointing? I know Pep did exhibitions with Ike William's and supposedly looked more then decent.
Alexis Arguello is the biggest + best opponent that I think Pep could outpoint... but it must be the Alexis of 126 lbs, still a very good fighter, good enough to stop Olivares but Pep would be too fast & slick for him IMO.
Arguello was most definitely capable of being outboxed, and Pep was a true 15 round fighter. Great choice, Butcher.
Ralph Dupas is an example of the type of bigger guy that Pep could face and potentiallyy beat. Dupas was a JMW champ for a few months in 1963. He was a good boxer, but not a heavy puncher, standing a few inches over Pep with a comparable reach. Pep isn't beating many half-decent guys any bigger than that. The vast majority of WWs are going to be too much for him because Pep wasn't inordinately strong enough or long enough, nor did he have enough power to fend them off. Hell, he was lucky to walk out of the ring against Saddler with his head attached to his neck.
I think LaMotta would be an interesting match stylisticaly speaking. Pep being 5'5 and LaMotta 5'7 and there reach being about the same, Pep at 68 in., of course LaMotta would out weigh Pep by 30 pounds and would attempt to Bum rush Pep, but Pep being the dancing, defencive, boxing Master he was, I wonder if he couldn't trouble the Bronx Bull.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Pep had a punch while still remaining the exact same in every other way, he would be the consensus p4p all time no1 with SRR 2nd. Pep was poetry... Robbo was poetry (tho not quite as poetic as Pep) with a punch.
