Dempsey-Firpo Notes

Dempsey, 28, is slightly more than four months Firpo's senior. Jack was born June 28, 1895; Luis, Oct. 29, 1895.

Jack Reams (Dempsey manager): "There is a lot of people I'd rather be than Firpo when Dempsey is turned loose. My advice to all ticket purchasers is to be in your seat early. There is liable to be a repetition of the Fulton and Willard fights."

Bill Brennan (only man who has been knocked out by both Dempsey and Firpo in the same round--the twelfth) : "I wouldn't be surprised to see him [Dempsey] end the evening's entertainment before two full rounds have been fought."

Jess Willard (in a signed article in The New York Call: "The best man I ever fought was Jack Johnson . . . His best was better than the best of either Dempsey or Firpo.

"My advice to Firpo is to be careful with Dempsey the first two or three rounds. Dempsey makes a lightning start, but I don't think he can go for a long grind."

Firpo (in a newspaper interview): "As I go through the crowd from my dressing-room to the ring, men will stand on their chairs and shout evil things at me. They will have their fists over their heads and call me bad names and tell me that Dempsey will do terrible things to me.

"I will not know what the words are, but one does not need to know a language to know the meaning when a man scowls and shouts and shakes his fist. I will smile and wonder to myself if these brave men who wish me ill in so loud a voice would like to come up in the ring with me and call me names. I will wonder if perhaps six or even twelve of them at once would like to come into the ring with me and call me bad names."

In 1916 in New York Dempsey (who was then under the direction of John the Barber) fought John Lester Johnson (Negro) at the old Harlem Sporting Club. Although the match was no-decision, Johnson smashed several of Jack's ribs.

Johnson appeared last week as a sparring partner of Firpo.

"Do you expect to win the title? What are your plans for the future?"

To these questions (put by an interpreter) Firpo shrugged his massive shoulders.

"Hoy es hoy. Mariana--quien sabe?" (Today is today. Tomorrow--who knows?)

It was the newspapermen who gave Firpo his nom de guerre, "Wild Bull of the Pampas." And later it was the newspapermen who had Luis eat raw meat. Thus with a single flourish of the pen is a bovine rendered carnivorous. One journalist (Frank F. O'Neill of The Sun and The Globe] had wit enough to remark: " The public is expected to see a horned man roaming about with blood from fresh-killed steaks dripping from his mouth."

Song of Firpo's friends:

El orgullo de todo Argentina,

Su izquierda trae suneo profundo

Y la mano derecha es mas fina--

Luis Angel, champion del mundo.

It means:

The pride of all the Argentine,

His left carries sleep most profound,

And his right is even more potent--

Luis Angel, the champion of all.

It is said that Firpo has never smoked and has never taken a drink.

Alfred Mayer, correspondent for La Nacion (Buenos Aires), told a Manhattan journalist,* who appeared to be credulous, that in a certain Argentine field meet Firpo ran the mile in 4:23. (This is only a shade more than ten seconds beyond the best time ever made.)

In Buenos Aires:

P:A boxing club named after Luis Angel Firpo Organized a civic parade to be held in his honor the day of the fight.

P: Three servant girls brought to a newspaper office their combined savings of 100 pesos (approximately $83.75), asked where they could find North American pesos.

P: Hundreds of shops displayed in their windows pictures of Firpo and of Dempsey.

P: Music stores sold "Firpo tangos."

P:A tobacconist brought out a "Firpo cigar."

P: A life-sized Firpo manikin, arrayed in a checkered bathrobe and placed in the window of a sporting goods store, attracted such crowds that policemen were called out.

* Grantland Bice.