Couple things...

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

What a night to be at a fight... Clay-Liston 1, HISTORIC HISTORIC NIGHT... the real birth of Ali...also, though, Rocky MARCIANO, Joe LOUIS and Sugar Ray ROBINSON among many others were ringside that night... imagine a boxing fan sitting there ten rows back looking at these guys all night???

Also..check this out...Willie Pep had sixteen fights in 1944...in his 12th fight of the year he won the WORLD TITLE from Chalky Wright...he won the title TEN DAYS AFTER his previous fight...won the title on 15 round decision at Madison Square Garden and then fought again just over 4 weeks later...as a matter of fact he followed the title win with four more fights before the end of the year, including a rematch with Wright... think about the guys now complaining of a tough five fight a year schedule...

[Libido Sanchez]

Plus, watching old fights, it seems like when a fighter got knocked down he had less time to recover. Nowadays, the ref has you take a step forward and asks you if you're alright. Some of the back-in-the-day footage it appears that as soon as you got back up the other fighter was on top of you already.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

yup...back then they didnt protect the fight as well..they didnt have a standing eight count after a knockdown..as soon as u got up the fight started...thats how Ali got rid of Bonavana in the 15th...

also, back to Pep...in 1948 he had SIXTEEN fights that year before he defended against Sandy Saddler...inclduing TWO fights in the previous seventeen DAYS before he went in with Saddler. Can u imagine Mosley fighting two fights in June before fighting a guy like Cotto or Paul Williams at the end of the month???

[Libido Sanchez]

Did Willie Pep really win a round without throwing a punch or is that just a great story made up because he's a legend? Did he really win the round or did his fame influence the judges? I mean, did the other guy just not throw anything either?

[TheGreatA]

Pep always kept a busy schedule, even for his time, which is part of the reason why he was already such an experienced fighter by his early/mid 20's but also why he was pretty much spent by his late 20's/early 30's.

Of course the plane accident had a lot to do with that as well but amazingly he recovered from it in just a couple of months.


22 year old Willie Pep vs 140 lb Ralph Walton (12 lb weight difference). The quality is poor.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Willie beat Jackie Graves one round without throwing a punch...Jackie threw punches but never hit Willie once...Pep SKILLFULLY made him miss...they claim some people were so cauight up in what he was doing that they didnt actually realize he wasnt throwing..his defense was masterful...

[Libido Sanchez]

Willie beat Jackie Graves one round without throwing a punch...Jackie threw punches but never hit Willie once...Pep SKILLFULLY made him miss...they claim some people were so cauight up in what he was doing that they didnt actually realize he wasnt throwing..his defense was masterful...

Yeah, I should have added in my previous post, "Did he make the other guy miss a lot?"

That's pretty amazing.

[Libido Sanchez]

Pep always kept a busy schedule, even for his time, which is part of the reason why he was already such an experienced fighter by his early/mid 20's but also why he was pretty much spent by his late 20's/early 30's.

Of course the plane accident had a lot to do with that as well but amazingly he recovered from it in just a couple of months.


22 year old Willie Pep vs 140 lb Ralph Walton (12 lb weight difference). The quality is poor.

Thanks for posting that video. There's something about fights in Black & White that make 'em look cool.

[Porter's Dad]

What a night to be at a fight... Clay-Liston 1, HISTORIC HISTORIC NIGHT... the real birth of Ali...also, though, Rocky MARCIANO, Joe LOUIS and Sugar Ray ROBINSON among many others were ringside that night... imagine a boxing fan sitting there ten rows back looking at these guys all night???

I'm just reading about the fight in Rob Steen's book on Liston. Louis aligned himself with Liston, SRR with Ali. I'm just reading about Ali going nuts at the weigh-in and getting an on-the-spot fine of $2500 for his behaviour from a comissioner. Rofl.

Stopped reading because I wanna re-watch the fight again and then go back to the book.

There's something about delving into boxing history that is just so incredibly rivetting. You can still feel the sense of occasion.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

I'm just reading about the fight in Rob Steen's book on Liston. Louis aligned himself with Liston, SRR with Ali. I'm just reading about Ali going nuts at the weigh-in and getting an on-the-spot fine of $2500 for his behaviour from a comissioner. Rofl.

Stopped reading because I wanna re-watch the fight again and then go back to the book.

There's something about delving into boxing history that is just so incredibly rivetting. You can still feel the sense of occasion.

I think that, by comparison...the era was so different, so historic..champions were BELOVED...being there back then would be much different than say, in 20 years from now you are at a fight like that and, say, oscar, Floyd and Vitaliy are ringside....Robinson, Louis and Marciano....thats a special group to be among