Guglielmo Papaleo or most widely known in his boxing name “Willie Pep” is an Italian – American Boxer who was recognized for his top skill in boxing speed. He was born in Middletown, Connecticut, United States on September 19th of 1922. Pep was also nicknamed as “Will o’ the Wisp” and was considered as one of the best boxing fighters during 20th century. In 1990, Pep was included in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He made his legend by winning 229 bouts of his 241 boxing fights during the 26 years that he had in the boxing industry. In his 229 wins, 65 of those were knockouts while he only had 11 losses and 1 draw during his whole boxing career. He was considered by many critics to have the most impressive boxing record in the history of boxing for having 229-11-11.
Willie Pep began his professional boxing career in 1940 by defeating James McGovern in Hartford, Connecticut by a 4-round decision. Just like most of the boxers during the first half of 20th century, Pep had his early boxing career in New England and divided his early 25 bouts in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Pep was undefeated during that 25 bouts, hence on his 26th fight, Pep headed to Michigan and defeated Eddie Flores with a knockout in round 1. He continued heading west and made his boxing debut in California by defeating Billy Spencer in a 4-round decision.
In 1942, Pep had a record of 41-0 and was considered as having the status of one of the top boxers of the world. He had additional fights with totaled his record to 52-0 including a win in his rematch with Archibald. Later that same year, Pep won his first title as the Featherweight World Champion by beating Chalky Wright in a 12-round decision. He had another 2 fights before the year ended and won all by knockout.
Pep had an impressive 61-0 record but finally lost to a fellow world champion, Sammy Angott in 1943. In compensation, Pep won 5 fights in the end of the year. And in the following year, he proved to be undefeated by winning all of his 16 fights in 1944. Pep continued his legend by winning 73 bouts in a row and counting.
Willie was definitely one of the greatest boxers of all time.
