Guglielmo Papaleo (Middletown - September 19, 1922 – November 23, 2006) was an American professional boxer, better known as Willie Pep, who held the World Featherweight championship twice between the years of 1942 and 1950.

[7] Pep started boxing professionally on July 10, 1940, beating James McGovern by a decision in four rounds in Hartford, Connecticut.

Like many boxers of the first half of the 20th century, Pep concentrated his early fighting career on boxing in New England, and he split his first 25 contests between Connecticut and Massachusetts.

He was undefeated during that span and for fight number 26, he finally headed west, beating Eddie Flores by a knockout in the first round at Thompsonville, Michigan.

A couple of fights later, he travelled further west and made his California debut, beating Billy Spencer by a decision in four rounds at Los Angeles.

By the time Pep stepped up his quality of opposition he was undefeated at 41–0, and he met former world champion Joey Archibald in 1942.

He beat Archibald by a decision in ten rounds and, in his next bout, challenged Abe Denner for the New England-area featherweight title.

He won ten more bouts to reach 52–0, including a rematch win over Archibald, before he was given his first world championship try, in October.

He closed 1943 winning five fights in a row, including two over future world champion Sal Bartolo and one over Jackie Wilson.

He won all 16 of his bouts that year, including wins over bantamweight champions Willie Joyce and Manuel Ortiz.

On June 6, 1944, he fought near featherweight contender, and rated lightweight Julie Kogon before a record crowd of 7,751 in an extraordinary bout in Hartford, Connecticut, and won soundly in an eight-round decision.

He beat former world champion Phil Terranova to retain the title, and had a ten-round draw with Jimmy McAllister.

He defended the world featherweight belt once that year, knocking out Jock Leslie in twelve rounds at Flint, Michigan.

Nineteen forty-eight was a year that would become important in Pep's life: He won 15 bouts before going into what would be the first fight of his four-fight series with Sandy Saddler.

On their rivalry's second installment, Pep recovered the World Featherweight Championship by beating Saddler in a 15-round decision, and then he engaged in a series of exhibition and ten round bouts before defending the crown against Eddie Campo, winning by a knockout in the seventh.

After beating David Seabrooke by a decision, he lost to fringe contender Lulu Perez by TKO after a delayed reaction to a punch.

During that last period of his boxing career, he won 43 bouts and lost only five, but his only opponent of note during that time was Hogan Kid Bassey, a future World Featherweight Champion who knocked Pep out in nine rounds.

After retiring, he and Saddler were involved in a series of exhibition bouts, and in 1980, Pep sued Sports Illustrated for running a story suggesting that he threw his fight with Perez.

In March 2006, Pep resided at a nursing home in Connecticut, diagnosed with dementia pugilistica, before his death on November 23, 2006.

[24] Pep supposedly tipped off a few ringside reporters before the bout and told them he would win the third round without throwing "a punch of anger.