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By Mike Anthony
John Scully recently spent several weeks in the gym preparing actor James Madio to move and look like Willie Pep, a project focused primarily on footwork, punches and technique.
Ultimately, though, Scully knew Madio’s ability to authentically portray a fighter meant being made to feel like one.
“We actually sparred one day,” said Scully, a retired boxer from Windsor and a longtime trainer in the Hartford area. “I said, ‘Listen, you can’t play a boxer, especially a world championship boxer, unless you have boxed, just to see what it’s like.’ I wanted him to say he did it one time, just to see how tiring it was. I wanted to give him a frame of reference for what Willie might have felt.”
Madio has been cast as Pep, who fought 241 times between 1940-66, in an upcoming film about Pep’s life and his return to the ring at age 42 after a six-year hiatus. Filming will take place almost exclusively in Hartford, where Pep went from a shoe-shine boy on Front Street to one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Pep, who was born Guglielmo Papaleo and died at age 84 in 2006, was a two-time featherweight world champion and, as legend goes, once won a round without throwing a punch.
“There’s a debate about that,” Scully said. “He said he did. He used to carry it around, the article, in his pocket. On a moment’s notice, he’d pull it out and sign it and give it to people. So he seems to think he did. There is discrepancy. There is no definitive proof. But that’s the story and he went with it.”
Pep led a very complicated life, married six times, ******** away much of his money. He was also seriously injured in a 1947 plane crash — after which he fought 130 times.
“He needed to come back to make money,” said Scully, who fought for a world title in 1996 and retired in 2001. “That was the reality for a lot of guys his age, Depression-era guys who grew up in the 20s and 30s. They didn’t know how to handle money. They didn’t know how to keep money. Fighters didn’t, certainly. He had to do what so many fighters — Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali — had to do. They had to make a comeback and they did it the only way they knew how.”
It makes for a compelling sports and life story that numerous groups have tried to put on the silver screen over the past 10-15 years. Funding typically became an issue and numerous Pep projects were delayed and/or scrapped after initial work and planning had begun.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions is reportedly involved in this latest film, titled “Pep.” Funding is in place. So is a cast and crew.Madio, an established actor perhaps best known for portraying Frank Perconte in HBO’s Band of Brothers, is seemingly perfect to play Pep, bearing a striking resemblance. And Scully is seemingly the perfect man to train him for the role.
Scully represents Connecticut boxing past, present and future as well as anyone. He was a decorated amateur and won 29 of 31 fights to begin his professional career, fighting for a world light heavyweight title in 1996 before retiring in 2001 with a record of 38-11.
Scully, 54, has spent the past 20 years training amateurs and professionals, mostly in Hartford-area gyms. He is also a boxing historian and as well connected as anyone in the sport.
“He’s got anybody’s number that you want,” Mike Tyson said last year while preparing for an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. “Any number you want, he’s got it.”Steve Loff found Scully’s number and called him a few months ago. Scully had the boxing acumen to train Madio. Scully was also a valuable resource in that he knew Hartford, its boxing scene and people, and he had grown very close to Pep over a period of 30 or so years. Scully was a pallbearer at Pep’s funeral.
“They wanted to know everything, what I knew, how Willie acted, how he talked, the whole nine,” Scully said last week from Montreal, where he is training undefeated light heavyweight Artur Beterbiev for a Dec. 17 bout against Marcus Browne. “I’m not teaching [Madio] how to be a fighter. I’m just teaching him how to be more like Willie, how Willie moved, what his mentality probably was, how he did his little steps.”
Scully’s first coach was Joe Barile, a former training partner of Pep’s. Barile often talked about Pep’s masterful, lightning quick jab.
“He was always like, ‘You’ve got to jab like Willie,’ ” Scully said. “And he showed me this particular technique that Willie Pep used. So I showed Jim. The way Willie used to do it, according to my first coach, is he would jab in a short, circular motion three, four, five, six times. It was almost like when you see a locomotive, the bars on the side, how they go forward, down, circle.
I was telling him, ‘This is directly from a guy who trained with Willie Pep.”
John Scully recently spent several weeks in the gym preparing actor James Madio to move and look like Willie Pep, a project focused primarily on footwork, punches and technique.
Ultimately, though, Scully knew Madio’s ability to authentically portray a fighter meant being made to feel like one.
“We actually sparred one day,” said Scully, a retired boxer from Windsor and a longtime trainer in the Hartford area. “I said, ‘Listen, you can’t play a boxer, especially a world championship boxer, unless you have boxed, just to see what it’s like.’ I wanted him to say he did it one time, just to see how tiring it was. I wanted to give him a frame of reference for what Willie might have felt.”
Madio has been cast as Pep, who fought 241 times between 1940-66, in an upcoming film about Pep’s life and his return to the ring at age 42 after a six-year hiatus. Filming will take place almost exclusively in Hartford, where Pep went from a shoe-shine boy on Front Street to one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Pep, who was born Guglielmo Papaleo and died at age 84 in 2006, was a two-time featherweight world champion and, as legend goes, once won a round without throwing a punch.
“There’s a debate about that,” Scully said. “He said he did. He used to carry it around, the article, in his pocket. On a moment’s notice, he’d pull it out and sign it and give it to people. So he seems to think he did. There is discrepancy. There is no definitive proof. But that’s the story and he went with it.”
Pep led a very complicated life, married six times, ******** away much of his money. He was also seriously injured in a 1947 plane crash — after which he fought 130 times.
“He needed to come back to make money,” said Scully, who fought for a world title in 1996 and retired in 2001. “That was the reality for a lot of guys his age, Depression-era guys who grew up in the 20s and 30s. They didn’t know how to handle money. They didn’t know how to keep money. Fighters didn’t, certainly. He had to do what so many fighters — Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali — had to do. They had to make a comeback and they did it the only way they knew how.”
It makes for a compelling sports and life story that numerous groups have tried to put on the silver screen over the past 10-15 years. Funding typically became an issue and numerous Pep projects were delayed and/or scrapped after initial work and planning had begun.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions is reportedly involved in this latest film, titled “Pep.” Funding is in place. So is a cast and crew.Madio, an established actor perhaps best known for portraying Frank Perconte in HBO’s Band of Brothers, is seemingly perfect to play Pep, bearing a striking resemblance. And Scully is seemingly the perfect man to train him for the role.
Scully represents Connecticut boxing past, present and future as well as anyone. He was a decorated amateur and won 29 of 31 fights to begin his professional career, fighting for a world light heavyweight title in 1996 before retiring in 2001 with a record of 38-11.
Scully, 54, has spent the past 20 years training amateurs and professionals, mostly in Hartford-area gyms. He is also a boxing historian and as well connected as anyone in the sport.
“He’s got anybody’s number that you want,” Mike Tyson said last year while preparing for an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. “Any number you want, he’s got it.”Steve Loff found Scully’s number and called him a few months ago. Scully had the boxing acumen to train Madio. Scully was also a valuable resource in that he knew Hartford, its boxing scene and people, and he had grown very close to Pep over a period of 30 or so years. Scully was a pallbearer at Pep’s funeral.
“They wanted to know everything, what I knew, how Willie acted, how he talked, the whole nine,” Scully said last week from Montreal, where he is training undefeated light heavyweight Artur Beterbiev for a Dec. 17 bout against Marcus Browne. “I’m not teaching [Madio] how to be a fighter. I’m just teaching him how to be more like Willie, how Willie moved, what his mentality probably was, how he did his little steps.”
Scully’s first coach was Joe Barile, a former training partner of Pep’s. Barile often talked about Pep’s masterful, lightning quick jab.
“He was always like, ‘You’ve got to jab like Willie,’ ” Scully said. “And he showed me this particular technique that Willie Pep used. So I showed Jim. The way Willie used to do it, according to my first coach, is he would jab in a short, circular motion three, four, five, six times. It was almost like when you see a locomotive, the bars on the side, how they go forward, down, circle.
I was telling him, ‘This is directly from a guy who trained with Willie Pep.”
Willie Pep 229
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