This is strange...but here it is.... Luis Firpo vs. Jake LaMotta...10 rounds at heavyweight. Back in the day, the middles sometimes stepped up with the big guys...The free swinging 'Wild Bull of the Pampas' against the 'Bronx Bull'... 6'2 versus 5'8"....224 lbs. versus 168 lbs. Not so great heavyweight contender (but very strong) versus middleweight great... After you stop laughing...Who and why?
LaMotta gets knocked out for the first time. I mean, Firpo knocked Jack Dempsey out of the ring for ****'s sake!
Fighting way out of his weight class and beyond all rational physical boundaries, LaMotta gets brutally knocked out by a big, huge puncher, and makes all those fight fans in the Twilight Zone who saw the fight wonder what possessed them to waste their time and money on such an obvious mismatch. Boxing would have probably gotten banned in the Zone right after that, with Rod Serling himself probably pulling the plug on anymore boxing.
Maybe you are correct...But maybe not either...Bare with me a moment...When I've seen Firpo (Dempsey and Brennan) I see a very large, strong heavyweight who possesses a big right hand...He can definitely hit hard with that looping punch...but frankly, I don't see any other punches hardly even attempted! 'One trick pony' comes to mind here...but a dangerous pony though! Skill-wise, LaMotta is by far, the better schooled fighter...It is not even close...LaMotta is also by far the quicker fighter...and that is not even close either in my estimation...LaMotta is so much faster than Firpo, Jake would look like Baryshnikov (imagine that) compared to Luis... Greb was a considered opponent for Firpo in '22...Greb in fact,was able to knock out a journeyman by the name of Homer Smith, who went the full ten rounds with guess who?... Luis Firpo!!! :smoke LaMotta is outsized 'by rational physical boundaries'...that's true! But Jake is considerably more skilled than Firpo...could that offset the size and power advantage? Jake met some huge punchers, but on a smaller scale than the heavyweight Firpo, that is certain...But each of the punchers that LaMotta faced were problably much more technically proficient in delivery,than the wild swinging Firpo...If LaMotta has the skill set to box with SRR...Is Firpo going to find him frequently enough to kayo him? IMO you are selling LaMotta way to short.:think
Maybe someone more erudite than me could quote the laws of physics or something to that effect to describe what happens when a great smaller man like LaMotta goes up against a not so great guy, who however, is so much bigger and has such a potentially dangerous equalizer like his big right hand that had Dempsey down and then out of the ring, and that put big Jess Willard on the deck for a ko. I know Jake was pound for pound a better fighter, but there comes a time when the bigger, more powerful man wins, and I think this would have been one of those times.
red cobra, I'd say your viewpoint is correct in majority of the time in gauging outcomes when a smaller man goes against a bigger man...Firpo would be just too big! There was a reason the smaller fighters did not fight Firpo during that era...The main thing that made me wonder about this match-up though, is Firpo's ability to convey that huge power against a very solid professional fighter (not that Dempsey wasn't...but their fight was a street fight in the boxing ring)...Certainly if/when Firpo connects, it's bye-bye LaMotta...as he ends up in the 2nd row...But would that very basic attack work against LaMotta? I mean genarally speaking if one fighter went into the ring with the amatuerish intention of throwing right hand bombs repeatedly against a skillful opponent, he would be countered all night...with combinations to the body and left hooks to the noggin'...I could see LaMotta getting flattened (if he gets hit)...but I could also see Jake evading Firpo's power efforts for the most part...This man had the skill set and timing to fight with SRR... In that era however, Greb certainly had his success against heavyweights...Walker IMO even surpassed Greb, fighting against bigger opponents...and another Jack Dillon, was nicknamed 'The Giant Killer'...these men didn't fight a beast like Firpo (Walker's opponents were actually better than Firpo)...Anyway, thanks for the comments!:good