BoxRec

Does anyone know of any other legends that boxers have?

I know the one about Pep winning a round without throwing a punch.

And there is the one about Duran knocking out a horse.

Are there anymore?

Former Welterweight Champ Don Jordan was according to him, a proffesional assasin in the Dominican Republic .

Lots of stuff involving Harry Greb like: Going a round or two with a floozy in the dressing room before getting in the ring to fight. Taking on Mickey Walker in a nightclub rematch after beating him in the ring earlier that evening.

Jean-Pierre Coopman was supposedly drinking champagne in the corner during his fight with Muhammad Ali.

Ken Norton hit Pedro Lovell with a right uppercut in round 5 of their fight and Lovell's hairpiece flew up and landed back on his head!

Rocky Marciano was apparently losing his first amateur bout and grabbed hold of his opponent an kneed him in the niagras.

Roberto Duran knocked out a large hooved animal with one punch in his youth.

John L Sullivan singlehandedly lifted a derailed steam engine back onto its tracks

Ali's gold medal swimming wit da fitches.

Jack Johnson KTFO'd by Joe Choynski, then learned defense from Joe while they were locked up in the same cell.

Kid McCoy supposedly administered a beating to a man after being taunted by the individual for not being who he said he was. He had a change of heart after being inflicted with a beating as the perpetrater of the taunts acknowleged that was "The Real McCoy" thus coining the now widly used phrase.

There are many, many legends and anecdotes throughout boxing history. That would be a good book to pursue and write about. Bill Stern put out a book in the 40s, or 50s that dealt with anecdotes and some tall-tales of boxing…You can purchase on ebay quite often fairly cheap…Bill Sterns Favorite Boxing Stories.

One of the most talked about has always been Willie Pep winning a round without throwing a punch. My question to the board has anyone seen this ?Any film around?

Some things are better without film. My dad has this story where he was nearly mugged. Its funny because the mugger gets taller and has a different type of weapon everytime.

>>>One of the most talked about has always been Willie Pep winning a round without throwing a punch. My question to the board has anyone seen this ?Any film around?<<<

There are no film of the bout that I know of. There was a pretty good debate on the topic as very short ago. I have a newspaper account of the fight in question as well as an article where a fellow IBRO member interviewed Jackie Graves, the fighter Pep supposedly won the round against, if you like I'll track it down and e-mail it to you. It's a bogus claim and that Pep honestly did not need to prove how good he was. I don't know where the rumour started, I would guess from Pep himself, but there is no truth to it.

>>>So Bert Sugar was lying in his book?<<<<

If he said that Pep won the round without throwing a punch, he did!

I have a pretty detailed account of the bout from a Minnesota newspaper which never states anything about Pep winning a round without throwing a punch...in fact, I have never read any actual fight account that has made the claim, and I have read many different newspaper accounts of the bout.

I would just about bet money that it was a claim that Pep made up himself...he was never the quite modest type and as we know...boxers often embellish greatly about certain things. It’s just absurd really. Now if the claim had been made against a fighter like perhaps a Joey Marcus, then it could have been somewhat believable, but against a fighter of Graves’ quality and style…well it is pretty unbelievable for anyone that knows anything about the career of Graves!

But thankfully, that is one of the incorrect tall-tales in boxing that has been corrected, which would have continued on down through history with no actual facts to refute the claim…that is until the IBRO historian, again I forget his name…Jake W., tracked down the actual truth of the matter!

Sonny Liston pulling a fake gun on Ali.

Ali jumped up on the crap table, he sayed it scared him to death.


Ali tried the same with Joe Frazier but Joe didn't find it funny.

I have a documentry called Boxing's Little Giants and if I am not mistaken shows the round Pep won without throwing a punch. It has been quite a while since I have watched it so I will pull it out again and see if that is the case.

Another legend I have heard is that Young Griffo would win bar bets by placing a handkerchief on the floor and betting that he could avoid anyone's punches without taking his foot off the hankie.

Max Baer consuming a lady while he was supposed to warm up for his title fight agasint Jim Braddock.