Was Willie Pep a COWARD?

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

birth date 1922-09-19
death date 2006-11-23
division featherweight
nationality United States
alias Will o' the Wisp
residence Rocky Hill, CT, USA
birth place Middletown,CT,USA
birth name Gugliermo Papaleo
stance orthodox
height 5′ 5″
reach 27“
won 229 (KO 65) + lost 11 (KO 6) + drawn 1 = 241


Many of his opponents likened fighting the "Will o' the Wisp" to battling a man in the Hall of Mirrors, unable to cope with an opponent they couldn't find, let alone hit. Others compared the experience to catching moonbeams in a jar, or chasing a shadow. And yet another, Kid Campeche, said after a fight in which Pep had pitched a no-hitter, "Fighting Willie Pep is like trying to stamp out a grass fire."



Pep's greatest virtuoso performance came the night he gave the fans a run for their money, literally, winning a round without throwing a punch. His opponent on this occasion was Jackie Graves, a TNT-southpaw puncher with more than his share of knockouts. Pep had already tipped off a few friendly sportswriters that he would not throw a punch in anger during the third round. Despite their incredulity, they found that what happened was incredible. For Pep moved; Pep switched to southpaw, mimicking Graves; Pep danced; Pep weaved; Pep spun Graves around and around again; Pep gave head feints, shoulder feints, foot feints, and feint feints. But Pep never landed a punch. In the word of one sportswriter, Don Riley, "It was an amazing display of defensive boxing skill so adroit, so cunning, so subtle that the roaring crowd did not notice Pep's tactics were completely without offense. He made Jim Corbett's agility look like a broken-down locomotive. He made even Sugar Ray Robinson's fluidity look like cement hardening. Never has boxing seen such perfection!" Suffice it to say, all three judges gave Pep the round.


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/class...ory?id=2622504

[WLAD OWNS]

Willie Pep was far from a Coward, he went toe to toe when he had too, unlike DARE I SAY IT Floyd

[NeXt In Line]

Willie Pep was far from a Coward, he went toe to toe when he had too, unlike DARE I SAY IT Floyd

Call me a "Floydboy" if you wish, but he's gone toe-to-toe before, perhaps in a different way but he's stoof right in front of fighters and thrown everything he had, its a quality most have to have at some point.

[NAPO]

it depends how u want to put i... but to me i don't think he's one.

[WLAD OWNS]

it depends how u want to put i... but to me i don't think he's one.

So you think Floyd and Pep are cowards, is that what you're saying

[-Antonio-]

Floyd goes toe to toe when he has to.

That was a great vid Dios.

[NAPO]

So you think Floyd and Pep are cowards, is that what you're saying

im not talking about floyd i already know floyd is a chicken..im talking about willy pep i believed he not a coward but there are some true facts.

[grayfist]

I don't know if a guy who survived a plane crash then soon got right back to fighting can remotely be considered a coward.

I don't know that a fighter who faced one of the best all-time, and possibly one of the dirtiest fighters of the era, five times (Sandy Saddler) can be called a coward.

I don't know that a figher who went up the ring 241 times to face opponents who were bent on punching his head off can be called a coward.

Many consider Pep the best all-time, many more think he's top 5 all time, and a vast majority put him in their all-time top 20 list. I don't know that a coward can get that high.

Edit: As for Pep winning a round without throwing a punch, the way he did it was not cowardly. It was a display of courage. Nowhere does it say in the account that's quoted in the thread-starter that Pep ran away. He feinted and managed not to get hit in the process. In other words, he was right there. If that's not courage, I really don't know what is.

[WLAD OWNS]

im not talking about floyd i already know floyd is a chicken..im talking about willy pep i believed he not a coward but there are some true facts.

Pep was not a coward, he went toe to toe with one of the p4p hardest punchers of all time Sandy Sandler.

PEP>Floyd , it's not even close

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

"My fight style is 'he who hits and runs away lives to fight another day'. So that's what I did for 29 years. I tried to hit and run. And I got away with it."
- Willie Pep