Willie Pep
He had eight fights in 1945, winning
seven and drawing one. He beat former world champion Phil Terranova
to retain the title, and had a ten round draw with Jimmy McAllister.
In
1946, Pep had 18 fights, and won all of them, including a 12 round
knockout of Bartolo and a three round knockout of Wright. He had a
six fight knockout win streak during a span that year.
Despite
being severely injured in a plane crash on January 5, Pep fought 10
bouts in 1947, again going undefeated. Many though he had lost something
as a fighter, especially after unexpectedly struggling in fights against
Archie Wilmer (Pep won a majority decision) and Pedro Biesca (Pep
was floored in the fourth round). He defended the world featherweight
belt once that year, knocking out Jock Leslie in twelve rounds at
Flint, Michigan.
Nineteen forty-eight was a year that would
become important in Pep’s life: He won 15 bouts before going into
what would be the first fight of his four-fight series with Sandy
Saddler. He retained the title by beating Humberto Sierra by a knockout
in 10 and he beat former world champion Paddy DeMarco, also in ten,
but by decision. Then, on October 29, he lost the world featherweight
title to Saddler in a fourth round knockout.
After two wins,
he and Saddler met in 1949. On their rivalry’s second installment,
Pep recovered the World Featherweight Championship by beating Saddler
in a 15 round decision, and then he engaged in a series of exhibition
and ten round bouts before defending the crown against Eddie Campo,
winning by a knockout in the seventh. He finished that year beating
former bantamweight champion Harold Dade by a decision in ten at St.
Louis.
In 1950, he won nine fights before meeting Saddler for
a third time. Those nine bouts included defenses against Charlie Riley,
knocked out in five, and France’s Ray Famechon, beaten by decision
in 15. Then came the third fight with Saddler. Pep once again lost
his World Featherweight Championship to Saddler, being unable to come
out for the eighth round due to a separated shoulder suffered at the
end of the seventh round. Pep was ahead on all scorecards (5-2, 5-2,
4-2).
Nineteen fifty-one brought a hint of controversy to Pep’s
life. He won eight bouts in a row to start the year, but this ninth
bout, the last chapter of the rivalry with Saddler, was his most important
bout that year. Pep quit because blood from his right eye was bothering
him. According to Nat Fleischer in The Ring, December 1951, this was
an extremely dirty fight, with “wrestling, heeling, eye gouging, tripping,
thumbing-in fact every dirty trick known to the old timers.” Referee
Ray Miller “let the bout get out of hand…” “The pattern of the ‘contest’
never varied. Pep wouldn’t make a fight of it and Sandy couldn’t.
Pep too frequently backed around the ring and Saddler just as often
missed as he kept boring in trying to corner his man.