No, that isn’t the case. Nat Fleischer called the bout “a dreary mauling affair” and what there is of the film of that fight bares this out. Firpo was decked for a flash knockdown but the film shows no other dominance.it’s just a miserable fight. If wills had an edge it wasn’t one worth celebrating. The fight was a dud and recorded ND as was the rule at that time.
And yet every contemporary report agrees that Wills won by a mile. 10 rounds to 0 with 2 even according to this detailed round-by-round. https://pasteboard.co/JaUceYN.png
This is indeed a detailed report, Thank-you for posting this. And as you say this report does favour Wills. However, since the reporters interpretation of the knockdown sequence is not accurate it’s difficult to give it full credence. The film shows Firpo was only knocked down due to a hit on the break. The report does not mention this. And footage of the rest of the round does not quite correspond with this report either. Firpo was not “all but out” or sent staggering around the ring from a follow up attack. Firpo threw the first punch upon arising then the two tangled and mauled, stumbling around barely getting a free punch on the other. The round by round report certainly is described as a blow by blow and clinch by clinch ...yet most of them describe both men landing similar number of blows only for the comment “Wills round” and the end of a paragraph. No explanation of why. Take anyone of the rounds scored for Wills in this report and there’s are almost as many blows described in favour of Firpo within the action. Taken from evidence of this report, Often Only the verdict of the particular round (from this particular reporter) separated Wills from Firpo. The film of the 1st- and 2nd-round action shows Firpo Might have a case when he said, wills was “more of a wrestler than a boxer.” And this report supports this by including several complaints from Firpo of Wills holding and hitting. Nat Fleischer summed this up the best. If the report supports anything this bout was a dud. The Milwaukee Journal headlined, “Harry Wills No Match for Champion Dempsey. Wills general ability as a fighter would not be sufficiently high to stand the champion off. Firpo not only telegraphs his wallops, but sends a letter of warning…but Dempsey doesn’t telegraph. His punches come from a short distance and behind them lurk oblivion.”
The Milwaukee Journal also described how Wills used Firpo as a punching bag. https://pasteboard.co/JaUQcGM.png
Another report that does not describe the filmed events. The film, nor the first report you posted coresponds with that “Punching bag” claim does it? It was not a straight bone crunching right that put Firpo down was it? All I saw was a cuff on the break that caught Firpo under the ear. He was up immediately. Firpo was a predictable, rough brawler and Wills was a holding and hitting spoiler who hit on the break. It was a lousy fight. A dud. As the Milwaukee Journal says “The Bull had no horns and the panther was Clawless”
Have you forgotten that you're trying to argue that this "dud" should be listed amongst Firpo's "high profile wins"?
I don't think that Firpo was that good but he was certainly dangerous and he has similar caliber of career to Williams.
It wasn’t a win for Firpo. But out of shape He still took the second best heavyweight in the world the distance in a no decision bout. he was good enough to make it a terrible fight. A bit like say Bonecrusher against Tyson except it wasn’t Firpo doing the holding. Cleveland Williams went the distance with Terrell. Similar kind of thing.
"Good enough to make it a terrible fight"? I doubt that's a phrase I'll ever see again. I've shown you two contemporary reports so far describing how badly outclassed Firpo was. Do you want me to show you ten more? I'll just do another two for now. https://pasteboard.co/JaXa6F3.png https://pasteboard.co/JaXapVe.png
It's pretty clear what chok is saying. For a guy that is heralded as supposedly the 2nd best heavyweight in the world and perhaps even greater than Dempsey himself, he had an awfully difficult fight with a fighter described as a ham and egger, skill less, fat, out of shape, and a terrible telegrapher. You'd expect a legitimate puncher that is talked about as being good enough to beat Dempsey and with numerous wins over the avoided black fighters, to be good enough to produce a knockout over Luis Firpo. Instead he produced a crappy fight that appears to have received just as much as he gave according to newspaper accounts. His win over Firpo is nothing to boast about.
Well that's certainly a minority view. Please tell me the Sharkey's accolades (or Miske or Brennan's for that matter) that you think put him on par with Patterson. Actually Marciano has historically been my #3 or 4. It's just Rabid fanboys like you and Chok that make me dislike the man. Not sure about Vitali but certainly Bowe. I've never been overly impressed with Bowe, and find him immensely overrated. We'll just have to agree to disagree. I just reread it, and I stand by what I said. 70Sfan says he has a comparable resume then in the same sentence says he has him below. My understanding is that he ranks Patterson above Sharkey in resume but if he was talking about higher in the top 20, I'll be more than happy to admit that I'm wrong.
Boxrec's account: Luis Angel Firpo 224 lbs lost to Harry Wills 217 lbs by NWS in round 12 of 12 "No decision is permitted by the boxing law in New Jersey, but a decision never was so unnecessary. Not even the partisan followers of the South American champion who sat with the 60,000 in Tex Rickard's arena felt that Firpo could win' Do you just make it up as you go along?
