Featherweight
Willie Pep; Was World Champ Twice
Named Among 5
Best Boxers of 20th Century
By
Joe Holley
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Willie Pep, a
featherweight boxer whose card-shark-quick hands, fast feet and puff-of-smoke
prowess at evading punches made him an artist in the ring....
"He was
probably the greatest pure boxer that ever lived," said
Nicknamed
"Will-of-the-Wisp," he won 230 fights, 65 by knockouts. Losing only
11 bouts in his 26-year career, with one draw, he was twice featherweight
champion.
After turning
professional as an 18-year-old in 1940, Mr. Pep won 62 straight fights before
losing a 1943 non-title bout against a heavier fighter, a middleweight named
Sammy Angott. [ born Samuel Engotti, Italian American]
"Sammy Angott was a spider," Kaplan said. "He'd hit you,
hold you, wrestle you, not let you fight your
fight."
Journalist Bob Considine described the
Mr. Pep, usually
a master of finesse, lost on points in a 10-round decision.
"Until the
day he died, Willie hated this guy (Angott),"
Kaplan said. "If it hadn't been for him, he would have had 135 straight
wins."
Mr. Pep became
the undisputed world featherweight champion in June 1946 after his win over Sal
Bartolo in a 12-round knockout. He won 18 fights that
year, six by knockout.
Gugliermo Papaleo
had been fighting all his life. Sportswriter Red Smith, quoting an unnamed
source in his New York Herald Tribune column, described Mr. Pep's childhood
this way: "Willie was a skinny, scared kid on the street corner whom
everybody licked. He grew up running from guys who could hurt him, ducking into
doorways and slamming the door. That's why, when he became a fighter, he became
such a superior defensive boxer."
He dropped out of
school at 16 and won two
In 1946, he
almost lost his life when a plane in which he was a passenger went down during
a
[Article goes on
to describe the four Sandler fights]....
Mr. Pep continued
boxing until 1959. He came out of retirement in 1964, as a 43-year-old.
"A guy
shouldn't lay around just because he is over 40,"
he told the Post in 1965. "I was 134 when I quit, but I shot up to 160
eating spaghetti and meatballs. That food has killed more Italians than all the
wars put together. Now I am down to 137. I eat spaghetti once a week."
He won 43 fights
and lost five in those twilight years of his career, against mostly forgettable
opponents. He fought for the last time, a loss, in March 1966.
Mr. Pep was
married six times, including once in
Survivors include
his wife of 15 years, Barbara Papaleo of