Guglielmo Papaleo was an American professional boxer, better known as Willie Pep who held the

Guglielmo Papaleo was an American professional boxer, better known as Willie Pep who held the World Featherweight championship twice between the years of 1942 and 1950.

Papaleo was born in an Italian family: the father Salvatore was from Rosolini, whereas the mother, Maria Marchese, from Melilli.

Pep boxed a total of 1,956 rounds in the 241 bouts during his 26-year career, a considerable number of rounds and bouts even for a fighter of his era. His final record was 229–11–1 with 65 knockouts. Pep, known for his speed, finesse and elusiveness, is considered to be one of the best fighters of the 20th century; after his 199th win, Kid Campeche described his experience by saying, "Fighting Willie Pep is like trying to stomp out a grass fire." Pep was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Pep was voted as the No. 1 featherweight of the 20th century by the Associated Press and ranked the No. 1 featherweight of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization in 2005. He is currently ranked by BoxRec as the 31st greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time.

BOXING CAREER

AMATEUR CAREER
Pep first fought as an amateur in 1937. At the time, amateur boxers from Connecticut were allowed to fight for money. It was during the Great Depression and Pep's father was earning $15 per week at the Works Progress Administration. Pep worked as a shoeshine boy in downtown Hartford alongside Johnny Duke. Both boys joined a gym together and became sparring partners. Willie was soon earning more in one night of fighting each week. When his parents found out he was boxing, his mother was worried for him, but his father said that if he was making so much fighting on Fridays, maybe he should see about fighting on Tuesdays as well. "My old man, he was a sports fan" Pep later quipped.

In 1938 Pep fought Sugar Ray Robinson in the attic of a feed store in Norwich, Connecticut. According to Pep's later telling, Robinson was an amateur champion in the state of New York, where amateurs were not paid, so he took a pseudonym to get bouts for money in Connecticut. Because of this, Pep did not know who he was fighting at the time. Before the fight he was told his unknown opponent was not good, but he recalls quickly learning otherwise once the bout began and Robinson was "all over me".

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Pep

TAGS: Willie Pep, Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents, American male boxers, Boxers from Connecticut, Sportspeople from Middletown Connecticut, American boxers of Italian descent, Deaths from Alzheimer's disease, Deaths from dementia in Connecticut, International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees, Featherweight boxers

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