Jack Dempsey subdues Firpo by Rob Snell


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Jack Dempsey subdues Firpo wild bull of Pampas

Sept 1923

Beaten to the floor nine times, after he had twice downed the -world's champion, and once knocked him entirely out of the ring, Luis Angel Firpo, the wild bull of Argentine, was counted out in the second round of the most sensational and most savagely fought heavyweight championship contest of all time at the Polo Grounds last night.

Between 85,000 and 100,000 spectators saw the heavyweight crown topple three times from the scowling brow of Jack Dempsey and they saw it grabbed back and set in place three times, because a champion with a champion's brain did not lose the instinct when his senses departed.

Perhaps no one will ever be able to explain accurately and consecutively what happened in the first round of that sensational fight. It was patterned after that famous first round at Toledo when Dempsey floored the giant Jess Willard seven times.

Willard did not fight back, but Firpo got up seven times and went back to the battle like the wild bull that he has been called. Willard struck hardy a blow in defense, but Firpo lashed out in a frenzy of anger and desperation and three times he did what no other fighter has been able to do since Jack Dempsey became champion. He felled he champion three times.

Three times Firpo was within one punch of the title and its million dollars in assets. Three times he had the champion, punch drunk, weaving around on the ropes, groggy and almost defenseless. Three times with the crown right in his hands, Firpo lacked the technique. to finish it .He lashed out wildly and missed

Those misses cost him the championship.

Dempsey was never nearer to being knocked out in his life He never can come closer than he did and escape.The very first punch of the fight a staggering right that seemed to come up from the floor caught Dempsey on the jaw after he missed a left hook and the champion went to one knee.

Dempsey came up dizzy and he fought the rest of the round as though he were out of his head. He threw cautions to the winds, he abandoned all ideas of defense and tore wildly into the south American . The round developed into the most savage of free handed hitting that has ever been seen.

SHOWS GREAT STAMINA

Showing great stamina and a heart stouter than He had even been thought to posses Dempsey Tore in and turned the tide of battle when 85,000 wild, yelling fans jumped to their feet and prepared to acclaim a new champion.

Under short left and right hooks to the jaw And right hands that threatened to tear his Heart out of his side Firpo went down Seven times in that first round. He came Up each time not covered in defense but lashing Like a wild beast in a jungle fury.

Another tremendous right hand swing caught Dempsey on the jaw and hurled him bodily clear out Of the ring. Dempsey landed on the shoulders Of one of the judges down in the press box. The count went to nine before the champion Was able to pull himself back into the ring.

Dempsey flung out a crashing left hook and Firpo Went to the floor .the South American rose and flung himself Into the battle and dropped Dempsey to one knee With another right that was flying around like The flanges on a giant fan.

Dempsey was weak kneed and groggy , his corner was panic stricken and from the other side of the ring frenzied instructions were being been hurled at Firpo in Spanish. But if Firpo heard he failed to respond.

Jimmy DeForest who trained Dempsey into the title and started Firpo said the the south American could have Won with one short punch while Dempsey was on the ropes, but Firpo, as experts had predicted, lost his head in the heat of battle and did not know how to get over the one punch. '

DEMPSEY FIGHTS WILD

Dempsey was so obviously fighting out of his head that he Firpo twice on the jaw with short right hooks after the bell rang. He seemed to know that the round had ended only when the referee across the ring in his corner.

The champion always has shown great powers of recuperation and has revived under the treatment of his seconds. He came out cool headed and savage in the second and in 57 seconds of fighting he battered Firpo twice to the floor with a left hook and a right to the jaw that landed almost simultaneously on the target.

The second time Firpo went down he stayed. He was counted out not because his heart failed him, but because he was physically, unable to follow his desire to get up and resume fighting.

Firpo was dragged back to his corner and it was almost a minute before he seemed to realize that the fight was over.

A SENSATIONAL FIGHT

No more sensational fight was ever staged. No two heavyweights crowded into less than a round and a third more real fighting than Dempsey and Firpo displayed.

Dempsey was thrown clear off the fight that he had planned when he was cracked on the jaw and dropped to his knees by very first punch of the fight, boxing left him, his ideas of science were forgotten and he became a wild fighting man just like Firpo.

The champion beat Firpo at his own game and he retained his title because he punched shorter, more frequently and with more accuracy than the South American.

Firpo's dream of becoming the heavyweight champion was only for the time shattered. The huge South American showed that he was almost an even match for the champion and they are sure to meet again.Tex Rickard said he would like to match them again next summer, it would be a great fight.

There was nothing in last night’s fight designed so produce another million dollar gate. Given one more year and better instructions and Firpo will take the title from Dempsey just as surely as he failed last night.

Firpo showed beyond doubt that he was game. He has a great fighting heart And it is only the lack of experience that caused him to lose. No doubt Dempsey chills a little When he thinks of what might have happened if Firpo had Lasted thru the second round.

Because he had never been called upon to show it before, Dempsey also manifested for the first the ability to "take it" and he took it as no other champion ever did. No other fighter in the world could have stood up under the punishment delivered by Firpo.

This article was published the day following the Dempsey Firpo fight of Sept 1923 and I am sure many members of the forum, and sports fans everywhere, will find it of some considerable interest and so very relevant to what we have at the present in all sports. I do not think the writer

of the article could have possibly envisaged that the concerns he expressed all those years ago could have actually grown into what we have today.

Sport and High Finance Incongruous

All sport must necessarily be overshadowed when high finance is reckoned.

To fight for such enormous sums of money as Dempsey and Firpo do battle for Leaves sports in the darkened background and profits in the limelight. Honest Sport and high finance are incongruous; to weld the two is impossible.

As this match is put over, money and the gambling element must of necessity predominate .It is doubtful if there can ever be a reformation, so far as sport is concerned, But there can be an elimination of the gambling, that’s as certain as rent day.No line of human behavior is worth what these two fighters are battling for.If it is allowed to continue it will certainly kill the game.

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