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They still call it the most sensational fight ever for the world heavyweight championship, between champion Jack Dempsey and his hammer-fisted Argentine challenger, Luis Angel Firpo. Back in the Roaring Twenties, 85,000 packed into New York's Polo Grounds to see all three minutes fifty-seven seconds of it. Nobody asked for their money back. In the first round Firpo was floored seven times, but got up to deck the champion, then knocked him clean into the press section. Pushed back into the ring as the count reached nine, the champion survived the round, thinking he had been knocked out. In round two, Dempsey knocked Firpo out in fifty-seven seconds. The four-minute Fight of the Century was over! 'The Wild Bull of the Pampas' became Argentina's most famous citizen, after the infamous Perons. Dempsey, half a million dollars richer, rested and rusted for three years before losing his title to Gene Tunney.

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Nueva York

History of sport

Boxing

Xian de Boxing

New York

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	16 juillet 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785310850
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Dedication
For my wife Mary, she s a knockout!
First published by Pitch Publishing, 2015
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
John Jarrett, 2015
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Print ISBN 978 178531-031-7
eBook ISBN: 978-1-78531-085-0
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Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1) Day Of The Fight
2) The Journey Begins
3) Runyon s Wild Bull Of The Pampas
4) Tex Finds Another Jeffries
5) Main Event At The Garden
6) Firpo The Giant-Killer
7) Wanna Be Champ, Luis? Fight Dempsey!
8) Hail The New Champ! Boo!
9) Miske - Capone - Brennan
10) Carpentier The Wonder Man
11) The Million-Dollar Gate
12) Wrestlers And Showgirls
13) Rickard In Court - Dempsey In Europe
14) Lean Times For Million-Dollar Fighter
15) Tough Times Out West
16) Gibbons Goes All The Way
17) Doc Knocks Out Shelby
18) Dempsey s Here, Where The Hell Is Firpo?
19) Training Camps
20) Firpo Trains On The Cheap - Dempsey KOs A Reporter
21) Who Do You Like, Dempsey Or Firpo?
22) The Battle Of The Century
23) All Over Bar The Shouting
Bibliography
Index
Photographs
Preface
I T happened more than 90 years ago and is still called the most savagely exciting fight for the world heavyweight championship of all time. Friday 14 September 1923, Polo Grounds, New York City, Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler, defending his title against Luis Angel Firpo, the Wild Bull of the Pampas, a huge crowd of 82,000 with gate receipts at $1,188,603, the second biggest live gate at that time. All for a fight that lasted three minutes and 57 seconds. Nobody asked for their money back!
In the first round, Dempsey floored Firpo seven times and was decked twice himself, at one time flying out through the ropes to land on the press benches. He climbed, or was pushed, back into the ring, barely inside the ten seconds and survived the round. Making a remarkable recovery, Dempsey came out for round two and dropped Firpo twice for the finish of a fight they would never forget.
Boxing was almost unknown in Argentina when Luis Angel Firpo began abusing his fellow men in the prize ring, winning the South American title before setting sail for New York City, the Big Town and the big money. A shaggy-haired giant with a right hand like a hammer, he managed himself into a dollar fortune, fighting off the big-name managers eager to cut themselves in on his earnings, taking most of it home to become one of the richest men in the Argentine where he had become a national hero.
Jack Dempsey, whose savage fists took him from the hobo jungles all the way to high society, was boxing s biggest box-office attraction in the Roaring Twenties. He was one half of the first five million-dollar fights in ring history, managed by the legendary Jack Doc Kearns and promoted by ace showman Tex Rickard. Yet in 1920, his first year as champion, Dempsey was targeted as a draft-dodger, having claimed to be the support of his family (which he was), while thousands of his fellow citizens went off to France to fight in World War I. The slacker trial (in which he was exonerated) would hound him until he lost his title to Gene Tunney in 1926 on a rainy night in Philadelphia. They loved him after that one and he would become one of America s greatest sporting legends.
In 1950, the Associated Press s mid-century poll of 374 sportswriters and radio sportscasters ranked the Dempsey-Firpo fight as the top sports drama of the previous 50 years.
This is the story of Dempsey and Firpo and their sensational punch-up at the Polo Grounds on a Friday afternoon in September 1923. Get your ticket here!
Acknowledgements
A LTHOUGH I am the sole driver for this thing, it wouldn t even be on the road but for the backing and invaluable support of my team of mechanics and advisers my son Jeffrey and his daughter Rachel for technical backup, my daughter Glenda, husband John and children Alex and Matthew for advice and assistance, my friend Bob Mee for being there with advice and encouragement, and the people at NewspaperArchive.com for their wonderful service.
Thank you.
1
Day Of The Fight
O N a January day in 1922, a husky young fellow walked into the United States consulate in Buenos Aires and asked vice consul H. G. Waters to visa a passport bearing the name Luis Angel Firpo. The holder s occupation was given as boxeador . When Waters asked the purpose of the visit to the United States, the big fellow calmly said he was going up to get a fight with Jack Dempsey.
You think you can lick him? queried the vice consul, with a wry smile.
That s what I m going for, the fellow replied quietly.
Waters entered in his ledger the object of Firpo s visit as training for boxing. In the margin he pencilled, says he s going to lick Dempsey - vamos a ver (we ll see.) 1
Precisely one year and nine months later, 14 September 1923, the world would see what Luis Angel Firpo, labelled the Wild Bull of the Pampas by columnist Damon Runyon, could do as he prepared to challenge world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler, for his title at the Polo Grounds in New York City. The Big Town newspapers made pretty dismal reading that Friday morning for Carlos Vega, whose daily task was to read the sporting news to Se or Firpo, who did not speak English.
Seldom, if ever, reported the Associated Press, in the history of the world heavyweight championship, will a challenger go in a ring with less backing among experts than Luis Angel Firpo when he opposes Jack Dempsey tonight at the Polo Grounds. 2
Jack Dempsey is supremely confident that he will whip Luis Firpo tonight, wrote Frank G. Menke for the King Features Syndicate . Luis Firpo is hopeful of victory. And that difference in the mental attitude of the rival warriors seems to forecast better than anything else, the outcome of the international clash. 3
Menke pointed out that the people behind the Argentine were supremely confident in the fight s outcome, but they had never seen Dempsey in action. On the other hand, the champion and his handlers were certain of victory, because they had seen Firpo in action. The fighter himself admitted that he was being sent against Dempsey a bit too early; that he really needed another year of experience against first-class fighters in the United States.
There are too many ifs to be overcome in doping this fight, wrote United Press sports editor Henry L. Farrell, and there is too little known about how much Firpo can take and as far as that goes it has never been established how much Dempsey can take. 4 In picking Dempsey to win inside seven or eight rounds, Farrell conceded that the longer Firpo was on his feet the better were his chances.
Universal Services syndicated columnist Damon Runyon was concerned over the drop in betting odds against Firpo, to 2/1. There is no reason for the change in the odds, he wrote. On what the men have shown in their training camps, the odds should lengthen not shorten. Firpo should be 10/1 - 100/1 if the majority of boxing experts who have been watching the two men are correct in their views. 5 Runyon believed that Firpo was more dangerous to Dempsey than his fellow pundits gave him credit for, but still picked the champ to win as easily as he won from Jess Willard.
In his fight preview, International News Service sports editor Davis J. Walsh wrote of the heavyweight championship meeting tonight between Jack Dempsey, as vindictive in action as a jungle tiger and every inch a champion, and Luis Angel Firpo, a human grizzly capable of all the savagery of his primitive forebears. The bout is scheduled to go fifteen rounds but few look for such an ending and none hope for it. 6
Current and former ring champions were given space on the sports pages to forecast the outcome of the fight. Former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries didn t waste words, saying, Dempsey will stop Firpo in a few rounds. Another former champion, 42-year-old Jess Willard, who had the unfortunate distinction of being stopped by both Dempsey and Firpo, penned a syndicated series of articles with NEA sports editor Harry Bradbury.
The Dempsey-Firpo fight will be a slugging match with the result a toss-up, Jess stated. A grizzly bear will rip into a gorilla. A pile-driver will crash against a buzz-saw. They talk about the wallop in Dempsey s punches, but I want to tell you that Firpo hits the hardest. I know. 7
The old boxing master Jack Britton, former welterweight champion, believed Dempsey a certain winner over Firpo. Dempsey will win inside of three rounds, he declared. Firpo has nothing but a right hand swing. Dempsey is a two-handed fighter who can hit harder with either hand than Firpo can with his right. Dempsey has forgotten more than Firpo will ever know. The Argentine will be nothing but a chopping block. 8
World lightweight champion Benny Leonard was also dismissive of the South American s chances. In a series for the North American Newspaper Alliance, Leonard picked Dempsey to knock out Luis Firpo inside of five rounds. If an Army mule were in a match with Zev, our champion three-year-old, would you bet on the former? asked Benny. Then don t bet on Firpo I liken Firpo to an Army mule because he has got the kick of one, but not the speed of Zev, which is Dempsey. 9
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