Willie Pep vs Sandy Saddler 3

In one of boxing’s greatest rivalries, Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler met for the third time at Yankee Stadium, New York, on September 8, 1950, before 38,781 spectators. The attendance and gross receipts of $262,150 were records for a featherweight contest. Pep and Saddler each weighed 124¾ pounds, but Saddler, the former champion and considerably the taller man, was installed as an 8-to-5 favourite. Pep was making the fourth defence of the championship he had regained from Saddler on points in February 1949. Their first meeting, in October 1948, had ended with Saddler knocking him out in four rounds.

The third contest followed the pattern established in their earlier meetings. Pep depended upon speed, movement and accurate left-hand boxing, while Saddler sought to crowd him, strike to the body and use his greater height and strength at close quarters. Pep made the cleaner beginning. He moved around the challenger, touched him repeatedly with the jab and brought his right hand across when Saddler advanced. Saddler was dangerous whenever he shortened the distance, but much of his early work was smothered by Pep’s movement or tied up before he could deliver freely.

Pep continued to box effectively in the second round, changing direction and making Saddler reset his feet. The challenger followed persistently and tried to pin him against the ropes, where he could use his leverage and body punching. The exchanges in close were untidy from an early stage. Arms became locked, heads were brought together, and both men used their shoulders and forearms while referee Ruby Goldstein attempted to separate them. There was little affection between them, and neither was inclined to surrender an advantage merely because it fell outside the strictest reading of the rules.

Saddler produced the first decisive blow in the third round. A long, sweeping left hook caught Pep on the jaw and sent the champion to the floor. Pep remained down until the count had reached nine, but he recovered quickly and resumed his boxing without showing prolonged distress. The knockdown gave Saddler his clearest round, yet it did not alter Pep’s method. Rather than exchange with the harder puncher, he returned to the jab, stepped away from Saddler’s rushes and scored with straight rights as the challenger came forward.

Through the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds Pep again held the advantage. He was quicker to the punch and generally more accurate, particularly when Saddler followed him without first controlling the champion’s movement. Pep’s left hand interrupted the challenger’s attacks, and his right repeatedly found the head. Saddler nevertheless continued to exert considerable physical pressure. He struck heavily at the body, some blows landing near or below the permitted line, and worked his free hand during the clinches. Pep answered with rough measures of his own. There were complaints of thumbing, lacing and holding, and the boxing was repeatedly interrupted by wrestling along the ropes. Despite this disorder, Pep’s cleaner scoring had placed him ahead.

Saddler made his strongest sustained advance in the seventh. Pep’s movement had slowed sufficiently for the challenger to close the distance with greater regularity, and Saddler drove left hands into the body and head while forcing the champion backwards. Much of the round was fought at close quarters, with Pep attempting to hold and turn his opponent and Saddler pulling and pushing for room to punch. Near the bell they became entangled against the ropes. Pep returned to his corner in evident pain and was examined by the ringside physician, who found that his shoulder had been dislocated. When the bell called the men for the eighth round, Pep remained seated, and Goldstein declared Saddler the winner. The official result was a retirement at the end of seven completed rounds.

The ending gave Saddler the championship for the second time, although Pep had been leading on all three official cards. Goldstein and judge Young Otto each had Pep ahead by five rounds to two, while judge Frank Forbes scored it four rounds to two for Pep, with one round even. Pep maintained that the injury had occurred when Saddler caught him in a double arm lock and twisted the limb during the final clinch. Saddler denied that his punches had been ineffective and suggested that his work to the kidneys had caused Pep’s collapse, while also accusing the champion of repeated thumbing. Whatever its precise cause, the shoulder injury brought an abrupt and unsatisfactory conclusion to a contest Pep had been winning by superior boxing but in which Saddler’s strength and attritional methods had remained a constant threat. Their rivalry required a fourth meeting, held the following year, when an even rougher affair again ended with Pep unable to continue.

I regard Willie Pep and Sandy Saddler as one of boxing’s greatest rivalries because their styles exposed the truth about each other. Pep was the superior pure boxer, but Saddler had the strength, reach, and nastiness to drag him into places he didn't want to be.

Pep was ahead in this third meeting despite being dropped by a long left hook in the third. His jab, feet and straight right were controlling most of the action. Saddler, however, kept mauling him, punching the body and making every clinch physical. That was not pretty, but it was deliberate tradecraft.

Pep blamed a double arm lock for his dislocated shoulder; Saddler claimed his kidney punches caused it. I suspect the wrestling played its part. The ending was unsatisfactory, but Saddler did what great pressure fighters do: he made clean boxing almost impossible. Pep was winning the rounds, yet Saddler was steadily changing the fight.