1. Willie Pep (230-11-1 65 KO)

Born: Sept. 19, 1922

Died: Nov. 23, 2006

 

Why is the man born Guglielmo Papaleo atop this prestigious list?  At 5-5 ½, he wasn’t particularly tall and though he scored knockouts 65 times he didn’t possess much power.  When they were young amateurs, Sugar Ray Robinson defeated Pep by decision.

 

Pep was perhaps the best pure boxer ever to have fought, his style was propelled almost entirely by faultless footwork that left him out of range in two short and graceful steps but brought him back in to range with the same smooth elegance. He feinted with his feet, boxing high on his toes whether he was pivoting, stepping out or stepping in, coming down only when he was ready to punch and it was safe to do so.  Fundamentally correct in essence his style was technician-plus in the sense that what he did could not be taught or learned, it was an instinctive understanding of the harmony of distance and relative positioning and a fighter so exquisitely balanced as to be able to take advantage.  It is something that can be said or implied about every fighter left to discuss but it is perhaps especially true of Pep: there has never been another one like him.

 

What he did was win more fights than any champion in boxing history and he did so with a skill level that likely will never be seen again.  Pep is the only fighter to rack up two winning streaks of 60 fights or longer.  He began his career by winning his first 63 fights, including the featherweight title from Chalky Wright, before losing a non-title 10-rounder to Sammy Angott.  Pep then went unbeaten in his next 73 (including one draw) before losing his championship to Sandy Saddler five-and-a-half years after the Angott loss.  Incredibly, 25 of those wins came after Pep recovered from severe injuries suffered in a plane crash in 1947.  His record entering the Saddler fight – 136-1-1.

 

Pep’s incredible potentiality was fulfilled by the experience he accumulated in more than 240 fights.  In appraising his record there is a concern voiced by some that Pep built the greatest run in the sport’s history against weak opposition, that his record contains a great deal of filler.  It is true that he didn’t box ranked men every week, but he did outbox, outhustle and sometimes humiliate a roster of former, present and future champions that belies those concerns.  In addition to Wright, who he beat several times, he defeated the diminutive former featherweight champion Joey Archibald; former featherweight champion Jackie Wilson; tricked, trapped and knocked out future featherweight champion Sal Bartolo; completely outboxed the primed all-time great bantamweight champion, Manuel Ortiz; future lightweight champion Paddy DeMarco; the superb European featherweight champion Ray Famechon and former NBA featherweight champion Phil Terranova.

 

Most of the fighters on this list had the safety net of punching power to bail them out of difficult situations.  Pep didn’t enjoy that luxury.  To achieve victory, Pep had to win decisively enough through skill alone to earn decisions because more than a few of his fights occurred in his opponents’ hometowns.  For Pep, there was precious little room for error; he had to use his full ability every round to secure victory.  "The Will O’ The Wisp" used unparalleled defensive skills to frustrate the opposition and his educated feet helped him get in perfect position to counter their misses.  Though a safety-first fighter, Pep executed his manoeuvres with a flair that was thoroughly entertaining.

 

Every great fighter has his nemesis, and Pep’s was Saddler, to whom he lost three out of four fights.  In two of the losses, Pep was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppages.  His two-round KO loss to Lulu Perez in 1954 had a cloud of suspicion hanging over it though nothing was proven.

 

His greatest moment was his 1950 decision over Saddler to regain his 126-pound title, a fight which many observers called the greatest single example of "the manly art of self-defence."  His considerable bag of tricks nearly earned him another featherweight title one day after his 36th birthday as he dazzled Hogan "Kid" Bassey for eight rounds before fatigue – and Bassey’s fists – caught up to him in the ninth.  Pep emerged from a six-year retirement at age 42 just to prove he could still do it.  After notching eight straight wins, Pep closed the book on one of the most brilliant careers in boxing annals following a six-round decision loss to Calvin Woodland in March 1966.