AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 27
On this show Neil discusses (Guglielmo Papaleo aka Willie Pep) his heroes – boxers, trainers and coaches – from the ring on TalkinFight Monday to Friday, on YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live Weekday’s at 7pm EST (6:30 on Fridays) @williepepgimnasio @williepep #boxinghistory @The World of Boxing! #oldschool
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#boxer #boxing #boxingtalkshow
Transcribed:
Hello, there talking fight fans joining us once again.
Neil the deal on his show neil the deal, and tonight we’ve got willie peplined up.
Am i right, that’s correct, graham, how are you buddy nice to see you today everything’s going well a little chilly up here, we’re trying to stay warm right yeah! We are yeah, it’s getting a little colder out there, each night so uh, but the ice fishing’s coming up we’re gon na get some fresh fish.
So that’s the good part about winter.
You know what i mean out here in the uh in we, the north country, guys we, the north up here right so anyways, guys we’re going to talk like graham, was saying i want to thank you, we’re going to talk about a guy named willy pep tonight.
Just to let you know – and i wanted to say thanks again for all the likes and the shares and the comments as we always do in the subscriptions seems like you know, a bunch of day.
Every day, every day we get a little closer to many more fans, many more people, many more talk and fight people and a lot of the i’ve been watching.
All the other shows, like i’m sure you guys are and boy are we bringing in some good guests and uh.
The other hosts are doing a fantastic job.
So i’m really uh.
I’M really happy about being involved with these people and i’m glad that you’re able to come out and check us out.
So thanks again for everything, so, graham we’re going to talk about willie, papp awesome now, willie papp was a guy that my father used to talk about um.
I never really knew who he was because he was way before my era, but he was in my father’s era and my dad used to watch the occasional fight here and there.
But we talk about it and stuff because he’d be interested in what i was doing and he would he’d ask me: hey you ever seen this guy named willy pep i’d say to him.
Well, i’ve heard of him, but i don’t really know him so i started looking into his fights because he’s you know they’re all he’s older than he i wasn’t alive when they were when he was fighting um because he retired you know basically checked out a bunch Of his uh, older fights, guys and like this guy was amazing, so we’re gon na talk about him um and i learned a lot about willie.
Actually, so i was i’m pretty happy about it to be honest with you, so he had a nickname.
He used to go out as the uh will o wisp willow, the wisp or something graham wisp willow.
The wisp was his nickname and he was born he’s of italian descent and he was born guglielmo guglamo uh papa leo, so he changed his name when he came to america with his parents.
I guess that just made it a little easier.
Just you know say his name, i guess i’m having a hard time.
I’M sure everybody else would too so.
He was born on september 19th, 1922 in middletown, connecticut, all right so uh.
I guess his parents emigrated to the united states and then he was born.
I guess that’s how that worked, but they’re from it.
His parents were italian descent uh his career spent 26 years.
Graham, i knew he was a very longevity type of guy.
I know he had a lot of fights.
I mean i’ve seen a bunch of stuff on him.
They’Ve had some boxing specials on him because he’s a real special boxer, this willy pep of the era.
You know what i mean, so his career was 1942 to 1968 26 years.
This isn’t some amazing stats about this guy, graham, and i wonder if there’s i’d like to find this out, if we can do a little research or guys if you guys out there and neil the deal and my fans and the talk and fight people, if you Guys know anything about this.
Please make a comment.
Let us know now i’ve.
Never.
I never really thought about it, but this guy, the individual willie papp he totaled 1 956 rounds of boxing actual rounds in his career, like almost 2 000 rounds.
So that’s a question for like say a guy like like ray bola, big ray: does anybody fight 2 000 actual rounds or something like that is crazy, so, graham again, and he did it, his total fights were 241 fights crazy questions? Are you saying i’m just curious? Does anybody have an answer to who has fought the most rounds out of any fighter in the history of boxing? I i would be surprised if there’s somebody who’s got rounds than him, but anyways.
He was fantastic for great speed, finesse and his elusiveness was amazing within the ring.
He was very, very uh elusive and, like i said he had speed, he had punching power, he had finesse, he was he’s a very slick fighter.
You know what i mean and he had the experience.
Graham after you have hundreds of fights right.
Can you imagine the experience you’re going to gain from those hundreds of fights like he probably knows every trick in the book.
You know what i mean like: there’s tricks and stuff every trick in the every fighter will tell you ask ask any of them: they got their own little tricks and and stuff of that sort.
So let’s go into uh his amateur career now guys just to let you know what he was doing when he’s younger.
He started in 1937 when he was 15 years old.
In 1938 he fought a guy named sugar, ray robinson at 16 years old, so willie was 105 pounds because he’s a featherweight, speaking of which he’s a featherweight guys, uh and which is a small guy 105 pounds.
At the time, sugar ray robinson was 130 pounds, so robinson had 25 pounds on him and they fought in a poultry feed addict in the middle of nowhere, like literally in connecticut, in a feed farm.
So anyways willie lost the fight because robinson was just a little bigger.
The funny part about it was willie afterwards stated that he didn’t even know who sugar ray robinson was, but he didn’t know who he was actually fighting.
But then what happened was when he got into the fight, apparently which he said he says i couldn’t believe it.
This guy was all over me like instantly.
He was just all over willy and he was like overwhelmed and he’s just a kid.
So he was like whoa like who, who is this guy, i’m actually like he? I guess they never really told him who he was actually fighting that time.
You know he’s like.
Oh we’re, bringing this guy we’re doing it in a poultry farm.
Don’T worry about the chickens and stuff or anything right, but uh we’ll just make up this little ring and you guys can go at it with sugar ray robinson best little weight in the history of boxing.
So i don’t understand this is what he did, but so, when he was, he did that kind of stuff pro totals again: 241 fights.
Graham 229 wins 11 losses out of 241 fights unbelievable one draw.
He had 65 kos all right, so he didn’t have a lot of power, but he this was the the interesting thing that i noticed was he’s uh.
He had 164 wins by decision, so that means he went the distance graham.
So that means that’s how he got to that 1956 in in the ring rounds like who has 164 decisions? There’S another one.
These stats are over the top.
I didn’t have no idea really that he was that you know i i’ve watched probably 10 of his fights.
15, but i wow i was like totally impressed, so he turned pro in 19.
1940 um hold on here goes those pop-ups again guys we’ll just get rid of these things.
There you go bye, bye, um in 1942, graham, so he turned pro and 40 by 42.
He was 41-0, so in two years he he fought 41 times in two years.
So that’s 20 fights a year.
It’S basically two fights a month, basically yeah, so he was fighting every two weeks.
So apparently he did that because uh his father uh they found out that on friday nights or something in connecticut connecticut was a different state back.
Then you could actually win money as an amateur back then apparently, and that in massachusetts, or something were the only some of the only states where boxers that were amateurs could win a prize burst, which was like graham 15 or something right.
You win the fight, you win 15 bucks, but his dad was telling him get out there and win the 15 bucks.
You don’t have money kid right.
He he came back with a bunch of wins apparently and then his dad goes.
Oh well, you better start doing tuesdays and fridays.
You know what i mean like something my dad would say like right, so he ended up doing that and so in in 19 he was so by the end of 42.
He was 52-0.
He won 10.
More fights like it’s just ridiculous numbers like he’s fighting like every 10 days or something, and so in 42 he won his first world title.
The featherweight title world championship title: he won it 1943 we’re just going to go through a little bit to give you some kind of a scenario what this guy was doing in those days.
So in 1943 he won six bouts made him 62-0.
He had his first loss in 1943, so he was 62-1 right.
Then he went and won 16 fights straight in 44.
In 45 he won seven out of eight fights that he had that year.
Then in 46 he had 18 fights.
He won them all in 46.
In 47 he had 10.
He won them all.
In 48 he had 15 bouts.
He won 14 lost one 49.
He was having this battle with a guy named sadler sandy sadler, so in 49 um he lost the title to sadler the first time he lost his title, but he had four fights against adler: we’re gon na talk about the sandy saddler guy, because apparently these guys Didn’T like each other like at all and they fought four times so he lost the title then the next year he retained the title.
He beat him, you know what i mean graham got the title back and then in 51 they had the third fight, apparently and and sadler won.
So he got the title back right off pep, but the fight was was um really crazy.
So i watched that fight.
So that was the one guys i watched was the 1951 willie pep sandy sadler fight, and these guys it was crazy.
They were i the grand they were eye, gouging, okay, healing each other tripping.
I was watching it thumbing each other in the eyes on purpose like it was like it was really bad like they were trying to rather literally and the ref was letting it go, and after the fight they were both bleeding profusely from all kinds of wounds and Pep ended up in that he he had such a bad cut over his right eye, like they were head butting, each other on purpose, and it was just going on and on and on and and he they threw the towel in, like the eighth or ninth round, Because there was just too many cuts too many too much blood his eye, buddy poked him so hard in his eye.
The blood filled up in his eyeball and he actually couldn’t see out of one eye and the pain from the blood he was saying in his autobiography was excruciating, so he couldn’t actually do anything because the pain in his brain was from the blood the pressure he Said i got up, i got ta, throw in the towel on this one and so anyways in 52 he won 12 fights.
He won them all.
53 11 fights won them all 57.
Had a 17 win undefeated streak and 57 19 uh.
So he all the way up to 60 and then basically around 60, he fought for basically five years.
He retired a bit came back, but he ended up going 43 and five or something in his last five years and he was still like you know.
I guess this is like 241 fights like it’s unbelievable, so he was, he was named 1948.
He was ring magazine fighter of the year and uh bert sugar.
We always talk about the sugar man.
He used to uh do commentary, for he was, like you know, a cool guy, so he named him the third best uh fighter of all time bird sugar, and he knows his stuff bird sugar knows what he’s talking about um in 2014, he was um voted.
The greatest featherweight of all time by the houston boxing hall of fame and uh – that’s an interesting thing, because i’ve never heard of this uh you pro guys out there you’ll probably know about this, but i didn’t know this even existed.
It’S the hall of fame there in houston is composed totally of um current boxers and former boxers, and they vote on the hall of fame people.
So you know what i mean it’s.
I guess it’s just within texas or just within houston, i’m not too sure, but they they.
Basically they thought he was.
You know he was.
He was able to to be voted in, which is great.
I mean i don’t know we’re going to try to find out about this 1958 round thing and like like this is ridiculous stuff, so he was a great fighter.
He obviously you know he’s he’s up there, probably in the top, 10 or 15 of all time.
That’S why my dad used to talk about him, hey, graham, because he my dad, never cared right about that kind of stuff.
He always thought they were overpaid and uh.
You know just overpaid, he didn’t like it.
So basically, you know once the hockey players made a million bucks, he just turned off the sports.
That was it for him.
You know so we’ll go over the notable fights that uh that pep had uh the ones that i watched again was the saddler fights.
Okay, that that 51 fight pep and sadler he did fight him four times um.
I think they ended up two and two.
You know what i mean.
Graham, there was a 2-2 like it was a win-loss win, loss type of thing, then uh another one that he had a really good fight.
I watched was um willy pep versus el bartolo, that’s sal bartolo, that was in 52, and then he fought a guy earlier on.
I think it was around 50.
, a really good fight, uh pep versus chalky, right chalky, who names her kid chalky like right.
I don’t know anyways chalky right, i’m going to look him up, that’s supposed to chucky yeah opposed to chucky or something right.
My dad always used to laugh sorry to talk about my dad, but you know he’s a cool guy yeah.
He couldn’t understand how you could call your kid, a name like plexico.
He couldn’t understand that he’d say who would call their son lexico like? Where did they come up with these names, but he was like 80, some odd years old, so he didn’t understand so anyways.
They do have interesting names, chalky right, everybody has their little name and i’m neil the deal there you go.
I got my own name, so thanks for coming out guys, graham, we talked about willie papp, one of the best of all time again guys for the likes.
The shares the subscriptions all the stuff, you guys been doing – it’s been fantastic every night, i’m loving it so uh keep them coming, keep them coming and uh we’ll keep them coming.
You know what i mean, so, if you’re, if you’re in the south, congratulations i wish.
I was hanging out with you, but we’re in the north here and we’re freezing our yep offs, our cherries, you know what i’m saying: wow this place is cold, so anyways make sure you bundle up and stay warm and stay by the fire, and that’s it.
Just hang out and get some hot chocolate and hang out with the kids or something all right so we’ll see you tomorrow night guys, thanks for coming out, see you soon, graham thanks a lot we’ll see you again, brother perfect show.
Thank you.
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