Sandy Saddler vs Willie Pep 4

September 26th 1951, World featherweight champion Sandy Saddler defends his title against former world featherweight champion Willie Pep. Venue: Polo Grounds, New York, USA. Weights: Saddler, 125½ lb. Pep, 125lb. Referee: Ray Miller. Editor and publisher Nat Fleischer called this an extremely dirty fight, with "wrestling, heeling, eye gouging, tripping, thumbing—in fact every dirty trick known to the old timers." Referee Ray Miller "let the bout get out of hand," Fleischer wrote. "The pattern of the 'contest' never varied. Pep wouldn't make a fight of it and Sandy couldn't. Pep too frequently backed around the ring and Saddler just as often missed as he kept boring in trying to corner his man. Then when he did, the rowdy tactics got under way and ended only when either both were sprawled on the canvas still wrestling each other, or the referee was outside the ring trying pull the boys apart or both fighters and official were entangled in a pretzel formation on the ring floor." Pep quit after nine rounds, "declaring he no longer could continue because of severe pains caused by a deep cut over the right eye." - Ring Magazine.