Dempsey vs Firpo is the most overrated fight in boxing history

I agree. I had high hopes when watching this fight after hearing it was one of the best fights of all time but was sorely disappointed with a sloppy brawl which Dempsey mostly won. Why on Earth Firpo is in the HOF is beyond me.

 

Heres the thing Firpo was possibly the most famous South American before Pele. It was also a regional thing. I think Firpos the first HW contender to not be from the US, Europe or the British Empire. So I think theres an international thing here too.

 

He also buckled Dempsey's knees in the opening second of the fight & also scored a flash KD prior to knocking him out of the ring.

Also, rallying to knock a fighter out of the ring after being dropped around 7 times has to be 1 of the greatest turnarounds in boxing history.

 

Always looked like Firpo pushed him out of the ring to me. There was a punch but then the push.

It was exciting. It got immortalized by a famous painting. Today it would be on video in HD immediately and we’d be debating punch or push imo. In those days it was a game of telephone — the fight was reported on by ringside observers and then became legendary as people read those accounts and told tales of it.

 

I did break it down for myself second by second a few months ago. Firpo's true best legal moment was in the opening second, when Dempsey rushed him at the opening bell, Luis stepped back and nearly dropped Jack to his knees with that bomb off the ropes. (On the footage, it looks like Dempsey's knees do touch down, but Corbett and Tunney demonstrated how Jack clinched to prevent this and recovered almost instantly. No witnesses who saw it reported a knockdown.

Almost instantly, Dempsey's on the attack again, then drops Firpo for a three count with a right to the body.

Before the second knockdown without a count from a left hook, it's already obvious Jack's speed is too much, and he's the very clear aggressor. Dempsey decks him again with a succession of hooks to the head and Luis is down for a one count.

Unlike with Willard, it should be noted that Jack walks away after each knockdown, not standing over Luis as he did Jess. In fact it was Dempsey and his camp which would ironically insist on the neutral corner rule for Tunney.

Firpo goes down a fourth time, from what looks like a hook to the body, and this is no flash knockdown. Luis is badly hurt, stretches out, and now appears he won't beat the count. He rolls over onto his stomach, then hands and knees, struggling to get up by nine. If it was a strict ten seconds like what Zach Clayton applied in Kinshasa, Dempsey-Firpo ends right here.

Jack tears in immediately and puts him down on his hands and knees with a right.

Dempsey turns away but immediately pivots back in as Firpo gets right back up. Luis steps back to let the momentum from Dempsey's missed hook cause Jack to sail by. Dempsey turns around to face him, and Firpo perfectly times his roundhouse right. This results in his only legal knockdown of the fight, and it's a monstrous shot, making Jack fall forward to a bare touchdown on his gloves, yet he instantly bounces off them for no interruption in action. Some of Dempsey's reputation for an excellent chin and ability to take a shot comes from this moment.

Luis throws the next few rights, but then Jack drops him to his hands and knees with a right in Dempsey's own corner, for a two count. This time, Jack does stand over him, his right resting on the top rope.

Immediate left hook puts Firpo down for a seventh time, and Dempsey steps over him to wait in his own corner, both arms resting over the ropes on either side. This time, it's for a five count.

Now when Firpo gets up, he steps back for the punching room he needs and fires away with his right. The third of those post seventh knockdown rights is a flush bomb that knocks and spins Jack's head up and back the way Arguello's right did to Pryor in the 13th round in Miami, but like the Hawk, the Mauler doesn't react to it.


Finally comes the George Bellows moment. From mid ring, Firpo quickly nudges Dempsey with a left shove, sending Jack back towards the ropes, and Luis is able to desperately charge forward for the only time in this fight. It's about the seventh right which shoves Dempsey's head from above the top rope down to between the top and middle rope, then Firpo straightens out his bent arm to push him out.

This should not have been ruled as a knockdown but a shove, and the referee does hesitate before slowly beginning a count. Maybe he was startled, but maybe he was considering how to rule on it. This is the only time in the film where either has his fist on the other for multiple frames. It's a stiff arm, not a punch.

Justice prevails, and Dempsey's not counted out on what was actually a foul.

The instant Jack stands up, Luis shoots another huge right, but it's too low for Dempsey's head. He's now on defense for the first time, but he gets to mid ring, retreats towards Firpo's corner, then unloads a right which puts Luis back on defense. Firpo's final chance is gone as the final seconds tick down. Luis is near his own corner as the bell rings, and Jack has no problem walking across the ring to his own corner.


Round 2 is all Dempsey of course, and it doesn't last long. Eight knockdown comes courtesy of a left hook to the body and quick right to the jaw for a four count, and this time Firpo's badly hurt again.

There was no question that final right was the finisher near the Argentine's corner, and Jack goes all the way to the farthest corner, his own, to wait. It was Dempsey himself who came from his corner to get Firpo to his feet after the count, which may have gone to 25 even if referee Johnny Gallagher had counted even slower. Luis is obviously really out of it as his corner helps him the few steps to his stool, very wobbly.

 

It’s a great fight. Wild and entertaining. Like a lion attacking an elephant.

 

That turnaround was prescient of Soo Hwan Hong-Hector Carrasquilla, except Firpo didn't win.

Later, Harry Wills knew how critical it was to generate a performance against Luis to at least rival in some way what Dempsey did to Firpo, and he failed miserably before the movie camera.

 

Dempsey was supposed to fight Wills the same week and pulled out.

 

Yes.Two ham and eggers with no class.I dont care about the nine dead through heart attacks,Tell Rickard i want my money back

Where is the Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels appreciation thread on here

 

Yeah but the painting goes hard tho

 

Firpo was a hype job par excellence. Congrats to Rickard on that creation from whole cloth.

 

Great description & I doubt any person present (or any of us here if we could be present for it) would ever call the fight anything less than an instant classic.

 

Dempsey was dropped three times in the first round and Firpo several more than him. If that is one sided and overrated then what is Hagler vs. Hearns, which had zero knockdowns in the 1st round?

 

I mean, Hagler-Hearns is pretty overrated too, no? One exceptional round of tremendous action followed by 2 rounds of Hagler just dominating a guy with a broken right hand.