Bert Sugar on Willie Pep?

Pep was a very good boxer, no, a great boxer. I'd be hardpressed to say he's the #3 fighter of all time because of his lack of power. I think I'd put Loe Louis, Ali, ahead of him. I know for a fact that I'd put Roberto Duran ahead of him. Duran was the polar opposite stylistically, but I think Duran's style, mentality, and aggression overshadowed his own boxing ability, and endurance. You didn't notice the other things that Duran could do because his aggression was so obvious. Pep had a lot of boxing skill, but lacked the things other aggressive fighters had. Personally I can't rank Pep #3 P4P all-time because I don't even rank him as the best featherweight of all-time. To be fair to Pep, and many of the other guys from the pre-television era, it's probably impossible to compare them to the athletes of today. They fought several hundred professional fights, whereas current fighters fight 50-60, and that's if they have a 15-20 year career. I think modern boxers have more time to perfect their skills between fights as well as recover from cuts, injured hands, etc. There were also fewer belts then (only two), so one had to prove a lot as a contender to get a title shot. I think Sugar Ray himself fought close to 50 fights before attaining the welterweight title, and Fernando Vargas won a 154lb title in his 16th fight. That in no way proves that he was nearly what Sugar Ray was. I'd be willing to bet that if Pep were fighting currently, he'd be much like Pernell Whitaker, and while Sweet P isn't in the top 3 P4P of all-time, he's in the top 1% for sure. Pep and Pernell are in the top 50 fighters of the last century, and that in itself is a very admirable accomplishment considering all of the weight cles. And as far as whether or not people would like him? The people that see boxing as a sport of skill and appreciate elusiveness would probably like Pep. It's hard to realize sometimes that the guys that we see as defensive fighters are still winning because they're still landing more punches than their opponent. That was true with Pernell, and Floyd, and even though Pep won a round by not throwing a punch, I bet he landed a good deal in the other rounds of that fight.