3. Sandy Saddler (144-16-2, 103 KO)

Born: June 23, 1926

Died: Sept. 18, 2001

 

Long and lean, Sandy Saddler didn't look like a puncher.  But he was.  Saddler's 103 career knockouts are more than any other featherweight champion in history and rank him sixth on boxing's all-time list.

 

Sandy Saddler boxed like a stylist who hated the world and everything in it.   Saddler’s legacy is defined by his series with Willie Pep.  Between 1940 and 1951, Pep was defeated by exactly one featherweight, and that featherweight was Sandy Saddler.  Their first fight saw Pep made a strong favourite and with good reason—he was as brilliant and dominant a champion as had lived—but some saw upon looking closely reason to favour Saddler.  For two years he had been trailing Pep and seemed eerily confident of his chances, with good reason.  He found Pep with ease, busting him up, cutting him, stopping him in four with a brutal left hook.  In the rematch, Pep found his range and put up a brilliant foraging fight against a blank-faced Saddler, waiting to take advantage of every single mistake.  And, despite the loss, he did that.  Pep won clean but his face at the finish was anything but, some of the same cuts that adorned his face after their first fight adorning him once more.

 

Pep had hoped to see the back of his brutal foe, but Saddler simply wiped the floor with the wider field, winning twenty-three in a row, eighteen of these by stoppage, lifting the 130 lb championship in the process.  Pep could make him wait no more, and in 1950 they met once more.

 

Saddler turned pro at 17 and engaged in 93 fights before he beat Willie Pep for the featherweight title in 1948.  In 1945, he won 24 fights, including 17 by knockout.  On the way to the title, he beat top featherweights Charles (Cabey) Lewis and Miguel Acevedo and met future lightweight champions Jimmy Carter and Joe Brown.  He drew with Carter twice and knocked out Brown.

 

Saddler was always busy and just 18 days before his first title fight, he stopped fellow contender Willie Roache.

 

As stated before Saddler's career is best for his intense four-fight series with Pep.  Pep boasted a 73-fight unbeaten streak and was considered boxing's consummate boxer before his first match with Sandy.  Three months and 13 days later, Pep put together a masterful boxing performance and regained the title.  While waiting for another shot at Pep, Saddler won the vacant junior lightweight title by decisioning Orlando Zulueta in December of 1949.  He defended it once, knocking out Lauro Salas, and was granted a third match with Pep in 1950.

 

The third and fourth Pep fights were marred by fouls. Saddler regained the title in the third fight via TKO and the fourth contest was stopped after the ninth round during to swelling around Pep's right eye.

 

At the age of 30, Saddler suffered a detached retina in a car accident and was forced to retire.

 

Saddler did not achieve anything like as much as Willie, managing fewer defenses and showing greater inconsistencies throughout his savage career, but he remained absolutely deadly even past his very best, knocking out Lulu Perez with a single punch in four, breaking down Flash Elorde in thirteen.  His prime domination of the field combined with his domination of a series against a genuine giant—no, God of the sport—makes him a true great.