2. Willie Pep
Years active: 1940-1966
Fight Record: 229-11-1, 65 KO
Championships: featherweight (2x)
Willie Pep (Guglielmo Papaleo) possessed sublime boxing skills, elusiveness, speed of thought and fistic delivery and dancing feet making him one of the greatest boxers ever to lace a pair of gloves. He was world featherweight champion between 1942-48 and again between 1949-50. He was involved in a titanic four-fight series with arch nemesis Sandy Saddler. He lost the first fight to Saddler, avenged it to recapture the world title, but lost the next two encounters on injuries even though he led on the judge’s scorecards. With the exception of Saddler he dominated virtually every other fighter.
