Looking Back at Willie Pep Through the Keyhole of a Stormy Night in the Orange Bowl

Published

1 year ago

January 28, 2024

Looking-Back-at-Willie-Pep-Through-the-Keyhole-of-a-Stormy-Day-at-the Orange-Bowl

The Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, was built to house college football games, notably the post-season game that shares the name of the stadium. In 1982 it was the site of a storied fight, the first meeting between Aaron Pryor and Alexis Arguello.

The attendance, 23,800, didn’t quite measure up to the promoters’ expectations, but the event was a success, both commercially and artistically. The same could not be said of the previous title fight staged here, the Feb. 24, 1948 meeting between featherweight champion Willie Pep and Humberto Sierra. From an organizational standpoint, professional boxing, more so than any other sport, is bedeviled by Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. And here was another classic example.

—

Willie Pep, born Guglielmo Papaleo to Italian immigrants in Middletown, Connecticut, ranks third on many all-time pound-for-pound lists, trailing only Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong. His career arc bears an uncanny resemblance to the original Sugar Ray.

Heading into his Orange Bowl match with Humberto Sierra, Pep sported a record of 122-1-1 and was riding a 61-fight winning streak. His only defeat had come against a bigger man, Sammy Angott, a former world lightweight champion. Making his won-loss record more astounding, 14 of those 122 wins came after Pep was seriously injured in a plane crash. He suffered a broken leg and two chipped vertebrae in the crash of a DC-3 airliner in which three people were killed.

In 1948, Willie Pep was the unified featherweight champion, having knocked out Sal Bartolo to win the National Boxing Association diadem after previously holding the New York version of the title. He and Humberto Sierra had fought once before. On July 23, 1947, on Pep’s turf in Hartford, Pep boxed Sierra’s ears off, winning a 10-round decision. But then Sierra went and pulled a shocker, upsetting top-rated Sandy Saddler in Minneapolis, leapfrogging Saddler in the pecking order.

Supposedly 23 years old, two years younger than Pep, Sierra was born in Havana but had taken up residence in Miami where a young boxing promoter from the Northeast, Chris Dundee, had established a beachhead. He was tall for the weight class; at five-foot-nine he was four inches taller than Pep.

The promoter of the event was Clarence “Kay” Kantrowitz who hailed from Hartford where Willie Pep made his home. In the Hartford papers, Kantrowitz was identified as a film distributor, operator of a midget auto track, and a behind-the-scenes political operator.

Kantrowitz had never promoted a boxing match before, but on paper he had good instincts. Miami was a sporting town during the winter racing season when the Miami Beach hotels were crawling with wiseguys. The fight was potted between the two richest races of the Hialeah meet, the Widener Handicap and the Flamingo Stakes, at a time when horseracing was poised to surpass baseball as America’s leading spectator sport. The locals were expected to rally behind Sierra and it undoubtedly wasn’t lost on Kantrowitz that the Orange Bowl was situated in the Little Havana section of Miami.

Staging a boxing event in an outdoor arena is always risky because of the possibility of adverse weather. The days preceding the fight were sunny, seemingly a good omen, but as folks in south Florida will tell you, the weather down here can change on a dime.

The sky turned gray in the late afternoon and a light drizzle began falling as folks entered the arena. The drizzle turned into a hard shower during the semi-windup, a match between heavyweights Ollie Tandberg and Walter Hafer. In the fourth round of this contest, a 10-round snoozer, there was an unscheduled intermission when the flash bulb on a photographer’s camera exploded sending shards of glass into the ring. That was the only memorable moment.

During the Pep-Sierra fight, there were times when the hard shower was something more; a torrential downpour. In an action scene that ran in many newspapers, one can see a ringsider crouching under a chair that he had turned upside-down to serve as a makeshift umbrella.

Pep took control of the fight early, knocking Sierra to the canvas in the second round. Sierra wasn’t badly hurt – he was up in a jiff – but he was on the canvas again in round nine, compliments of a clean left hook, and saved by the bell later in the round when Pep caught him against the ropes with a vicious right uppercut. Sierra tottered back to his corner and the fight ended 22 seconds into the next frame when Pep knocked him down again with a scorching right hook. Referee Jack Dempsey (yes, that Jack Dempsey) waived it off without starting a count as Pep sloshed to a neutral corner.

During the previous year, the Orange Bowl was expanded to 58,750. Pep-Sierra II drew an announced crowd of 7,757. (One guesses that the crowd would have been somewhat larger if Miami’s darker-skinned citizens were free to sit where they pleased, but this was the Deep South and blacks were confined to a separate section of the grandstand.)

Clarence Kantrowitz reportedly needed $93,000 to break even. With no TV (there were very few sets in use), the fight generated little auxiliary income save for a stipend from the radio station in Hartford that carried the fight using local on-air talent. In a nutshell, the first-time promoter lost his shirt and he wouldn’t be the only one left out to dry. As widely reported, whatever money he earned after expenses would be donated to the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund.

Kantrowitz actually did write a check to the charity in the amount of $3,250 (10 percent of Pep’s guaranteed purse), but the check, said New York Daily Mirror sports editor Dan Parker, the treasurer of the fund, “bounced higher than a kid’s kite on a windy day.”

Willie Pep lost his title later that year to four-time rival Sandy Saddler, regained it from Saddler in 1949 with a brilliant display of boxing, only to lose it again to Saddler in 1950 when he retired on his stool after seven rounds with a dislocated shoulder in a fight that he was winning. In retirement, Pep stayed in the game as a referee and a deputy boxing inspector for the state of Connecticut. Humberto Sierra returned to Havana and died in obscurity. Heading into his title fight with Pep, the Miami papers listed his record as 75-3. Boxrec tells a different tale. It shows that Sierra was stopped eight times after his second encounter with Pep and left the sport with a record of 49-24-5. Clarence Kantrowitz suffered a fatal heart attack in 1961, passing away at age 57.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Arne K. Lang

Up Next

Avila Perspective, Chap. 271: Tim Tszyu in L.A. and More

Don't Miss

Jaime Munguia Scores a Definitive KO Over John Ryder

Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

Bombs-Away-in-Las-Vegas-where-Inoue-and-Espinoza-Scored-Smashing-Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Undercard-Results-and-Recaps-from-the-Inoue-Cardenas-Show-in-Las-Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Canelo-Alvarez-Upends-Dancing-Machine-William-Scull-in-Saudi-Arabia

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!