There is truth to the claim, of course, as boxing is altered and defanged enough to make it a safer version of what it once was. And if we have to give up bare knuckles in exchange for fewer broken hands and sickening facial injuries, so be it. Letting go of extra “championship rounds” beyond round 12 gets easier with each passing year. Boxing has lost a few other things, though.

As fighters climb into the ring less and less, it also means fewer opportunities to create rivalries, and some of the biggest names in the sport built their existence on rivalries. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, “Sugar” Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta, and Sandy Saddler and Willie Pep, long considered two of the greatest featherweights ever.

For a rivalry to even work, there has to be some foil or contrast between the two fighters. Often just a personality clash is enough to ignite something, but in-ring style clashes are plenty. That’s how the Robinson-LaMotta rivalry functioned despite Robinson winning five of their six fights. The heavier LaMotta generally gave away early rounds to a faster Robinson, who often faded or slowed in the later rounds just enough for LaMotta to maul some points back.

Saddler and Pep clashed similarly. Even way back in his amateur days, Pep’s reputation was that as a slick, fast and elusive fighter without much of a punch. He fought Robinson in the late 1930s, losing a decision to the future superstar. Saddler was tall and spindly, like former bantamweight champion Panama Al Brown, and unlike the gregarious Pep, Saddler was quiet with an unassuming smile. Then the bell rang, and Saddler might just lay an opponent down for a quick nap after brief tenderization. He was a killer.

The two first met in 1948, when Pep was 26 and seemingly in his prime. Indeed, Pep captured a portion of the featherweight title just two years into his pro career and had lost only once in nearly 150 fights, and it was to bigger, incredibly awkward lightweight Sammy Angott.

In early January of 1947, however, Pep just barely survived when traveling on an airplane that crashed into a New Jersey forest during a snowstorm. He was left with severe spinal injuries and temporarily paralyzed, yet he recovered and somehow fought 11 times that year. Before their first bout in October 1948, an Associated Press writer said, “Pep evaded Saddler until he felt he had recovered completely from a nearly fatal airplane accident.”

Saddler knocked Pep out in four rounds, seemingly confirming suspicions. The two then rematched a few months later, with Pep fighting his soul out to win a decision, regain the featherweight title and legitimize the rivalry in the “Fight of the Year.” Pep defended the title three times in the next 18 months before getting in with Saddler once more and being physically overwhelmed and stopped in his corner, claiming a shoulder injury.

As Pep received “whirlpool bath treatments” for his shoulder and Saddler held both the featherweight and junior lightweight titles, the International Boxing Club of New York tore its way through the sport by setting up a chain of fake or easily manipulated fight managers, controlling a series of East Coast and Midwest venues, and eventually outright fixing fights to control world titles.

Both Saddler and Pep were tied to the misdeeds of the IBC through their own managers, Charley Johnston and Lou Viscusi respectively, who had associations with the organization’s higher-ups. Naturally, the relationships raised questions about the veracity of Pep’s shoulder injury, officiating in their fights and so forth, but the far bigger story was that the IBC was an open secret that many boxing writers and pundits openly criticized.

Even after the IBC rattled enough cages to draw the attention of government investigators, it still had businesses to run, and a fourth fight between Saddler and Pep was good business. A loss to tough Paddy DeMarco after Saddler returned from a trip to South America with Johnston couldn’t derail the fourth meeting with Pep, who beat Corky Gonzales to seal the deal in early September. They would meet at the historic Polo Grounds in New York, under bright television lights, on September 26, 1951 – 75 years ago today.

Ideally, a fourth fight would look much like the rematch, with one fighter outhustling the other and giving his all to make it happen. And if it wasn’t a great fight, then it could at least be just another fight. Everyone just needed to avoid drawing attention in a negative way.

As if on cue, Saddler and Pep met one final time and earned referee warnings in every single round they fought, seemingly unable to avoid colliding and tangling up as referee Ray Miller allowed the fight to become too chaotic.

In round 2, as Pep attempted to spin away from Saddler with his arm wrapped around the champion’s waist, Saddler replied with two left uppercuts that put Pep on the deck in the corner. “The Will o’ the Wisp” rose and fought his way back into the fight with his wild movement and all-angles smacking, but Saddler slowed him down with low blows and blatant kidney punches. The crowd booed Pep’s attempts at clinching when Saddler got close, and they booed Saddler’s mauling and fouling.

Between the fouls, some exchanges were actually thrilling, as Pep snapped multiple shots off and Saddler loaded up on bombs. The fight truly deteriorated when their wrestling began taking the fighters to the canvas in round 5, though, and both ignored the referee. Pep wouldn’t stop grabbing Saddler when they got close and Saddler kept yanking on Pep’s arms, elbowing, shoving and whatever else he could to keep the action going. Again in the 6th round the fighters hit the canvas at the bell. In round 7, Saddler literally pushed Miller away from the clinch when he tried to intervene and once again moments later, with the referee ending up on the floor himself.

Suddenly Pep appeared exhausted at the end of the 7th and he seemed as though he wanted to stay in his corner for round 8. Pep then wrapped his leg around Saddler’s and tripped him moments into the round, and later he had to be pried from the clinch as Saddler walked him down. It only got worse in round 9 as an exhausted Pep could barely shuffle away. Earlier he could have argued Saddler was the one bullying and breaking the rules, and now he could only mix desperate slapping and various veteran tricks to survive. He lost the crowd, then the fight when he stayed in his corner for round 10.

Annoyed, Saddler raised his glove in victory after Pep bowed out. He later claimed Pep thumbed his eye and laced him around his eyes during the fight, even if he admitted to some fault. Still, Saddler said, “He started it.”

Nat Fleischer, founder and editor of The Ring, wrote that the IBC scrubbed much of the fouling from the copies of the fight that they actually released to the public, and even then the fight was a train wreck. The New York State Athletic Commission suspended both fighters, and Pep’s suspension was initially upheld in several other states.

The rivalry had to end somewhere, and Saddler, who ultimately scored more than 100 knockouts during his career, struggled with eye problems for a few years before retiring with the lineal crown. Pep’s associations with the IBC led to accusations of him throwing at least one fight, which tarnished his reputation for years, though he fought on before officially retiring in the mid-1960s.

Even in their day, a four-fight series between Saddler and Pep stretched over three years. The difference between then and now, of course, was the number of fights they both took in the meanwhile. That kind of activity made their rivalry possible, and ending on a wild note is what made it classic boxing.