Willie Pep - would his fans please justify his placement in their top all time lists

Bull****.

Pep had his back broken in the plane crash, and it was generally acknowledged that he wasn't the same fighter afterward as he was prior to that point.

Look at it this way...if Jeff Lacy had been a featherweight during that time, then he likely would have had his head handed to him by the likes of Phil Terranova and Chalky Wright...and he would have been lucky to survive an encounter with Sandly Saddler.

 

Saddler lost to Terranova, to DeMarco (twice), and Humberto Sierra...all of whom were beaten by Pep. Saddler's definately in the top 3 at featherweight, but, at their very best, Pep was still more dominant against the same class of fighter than Saddler.

 

Thanks for replying, I think we agree on most things regarding Pep, just our final impressions slightly differ, dont get me wrong i dont dislike Willie Pep, i just dont worry about 135-1 of this and 432-3 of that, numbers are just numbers, as I say to reaffirm,
Pep in my estimation is

All time Featherweight rankings
2nd

P4P All time
11-20th

Shall we agree to partially disagree :good

 

Acceptable ratings...I suppose.

Yeah...we're not that far off on this topic, really. :good

 

Again, in an era without a proliferation of championship belts, and when fighters were considerably more active by necessity than they were today, it speaks well of a fighter to hold a championship for two years. Wright may have lost to the very best, but he defeated just about everyone else.

It's pretty simple...if a fighter fights the best available competition consistantly, it's pretty likely that he'll drop a fight here or there. However, if he wins more than he loses, then it's safe to say that he's worhty fighter.

 

Ok, instead of knocking Pep about the fighters he did beat, name the best featherweights of his era he did not beat? You can only fight the best at that time. Pep did that, won most of his fights rather easily and that is all he could do.

 

Are you arguing that a fighter can break his spine and it not have a major detrimental efect on his ring performence?

 

Pep has broken his spine in a plane crash and not only are you not making any alowence for it but you are making an alowence for Sadler being past his best?

I fear that you are being a little inconsistent in your aproach.

 

Mcgrain already tried that argument with this guy. Nothing seems to sink in with China dude, if it doesn't suit his opinion