Exit the Old Master

Willie Pep was the old master, a crafty, shifty infighter who could stand on an opponent's insteps while he cuffed, punched and elbowed him to defeat. Going into last week, he had fought 189 fights and lost only five of them. Moreover, on the record, the only man of modern times who could beat Willie was the man who took away Willie's title of Featherweight (126 Ibs.) Champion of the World three years ago, Sandy Saddler. Last week, as part of his announced program of keeping in trim for another bout with Sandy one of these days, Old Master Pep, 31, stepped into the ring with a youngster named Lulu Perez, 20, who a year ago was just good enough to be a sparring partner for Willie.

It was all over in two rounds. Perez rocked Willie in Round One with a hard left to the jaw, but Willie backtracked out of trouble with something of his famed old dancing-master style. In the second, Willie even came boring in with some of his old artful lefts and rights. "Willie's trying for an early knockout," ringside fans told each other. But it wasn't Willie's night. A right cross sent him down for a count of eight. Moments later, another pair of rights sent Willie down again, for nine. And before the round could end, another attack sent Willie down for the third time. There was no count: under New York rules, a fighter in a nontitle fight is automatically out after three knockdowns in one round.

Lulu Perez, carried away by the unexpectedly easy victory, wept for joy, and his handlers covered his head with a towel for fear the fans would think their man a softie. The crowd, many of them from Willie's home town of Hartford, Conn., booed and jeered the champ, cracked that Willie had given far less than his all. New York Boxing Commissioner Robert Christenberry had no patience with such speculation: "Any evil talk is a slur on a once-great fighter who took the beating of his life. The result speaks for itself. This is the end of an era. You can't hold back youth." The boxing commission's doctor, Vincent Nardiello, wrote a finis to Willie's career: "His reflexes are gone ... I will never okay him to fight again."

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