Heavyweights: Gene Tunney vs. Luis Angel Firpo

[scorpio83]

15 Rounds Heavyweight Bout

Tunney would easily out-box Firpo behind his jabs, counters and combinations at long range to either take a decision or late round stoppage. What do you guys think and who do you got?

[HomicideHenry]

Firpo is one of the first boxers I can really think of who was largely built on hype. He knocked over a lot of unknown names in South America, then he basically feasted on the corpse of Jess Willard who hadn't fought in a few years, and then he was given the shot at Dempsey.

Dempsey and his management did not take him seriously at all which is why Firpo was so dangerous in that fight but Dempsey managed to dig down deep and stop Firpo. Beyond that there's nothing more to really be said of the large Argentinian. Just a strong man who threw haymakers.

Tunney would have had very little trouble with him and probably would have ended up knocking him out in the later rounds because the guy would have been so tired after 4 or 5 rounds.

[Ambling Alp II]

There were many fighters who were largely built on hype before Firpo came a long.
Firpo himself was not just a hype job. He beat Bill Brennan and Charley Weinert who were contenders.
For the record, Willard did have a fight two months before Firpo beat him.
Dempsey took Firpo seriously.

[HomicideHenry]

Willard's Last Four Bouts:

Firpo- 1923
Floyd Johnson- 1923
Dempsey- 1919
Moran- 1916

Quite the inactive one Willard.

And yes, Firpo was a hype job. The biography, "A Flame of Pure Fire," goes pretty in depth in the fact that not only Firpo was a hype job but that the Carpentier fight was also hype more than anything else.

Because of his size, he was an attraction. He was enormous for the era, and him being branded "The Wild Bull of the Pampas," and mostly fictitious stories generated by Tex Rickard's cronies in the press made him an even bigger attraction.

https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Luis_Angel_Firpo

Yeah, he beat a few good names along the way but he was basically just an enormous guy who hit hard with no boxing ability at all. Even the biography on BoxRec for Firpo says he was basically a freak show attraction more than a boxer.

[Ambling Alp II]

Yes I was aware that he had not been too active. I was just pointing out that factually he had fought just two months before the Firpo fight; you had said Willard had not fought for years, which was factually incorrect.

I've read the Dempsey biography and other books on Dempsey as well as boxing during this era.
Firpo wasn't just some hype job. Had there been rankings, he would have close to the top.

He beat other contenders. If he was all hype he would not have been able to do that.
If he was just a "freak show" he would not have won those fights.
Yes Firpo was fairly big. Dempsey beat bigger fighters in his career. Being big is not what got him attention. Scoring some good wins is what got people's attention.

He was by no means a great fighter. But he had some ability.

[Nile4000]

Tunney by wide UD.

[Teddy's Toupee]

Yes I was aware that he had not been too active. I was just pointing out that factually he had fought just two months before the Firpo fight; you had said Willard had not fought for years, which was factually incorrect.

I've read the Dempsey biography and other books on Dempsey as well as boxing during this era.
Firpo wasn't just some hype job. Had there been rankings, he would have close to the top.

He beat other contenders. If he was all hype he would not have been able to do that.
If he was just a "freak show" he would not have won those fights.
Yes Firpo was fairly big. Dempsey beat bigger fighters in his career. Being big is not what got him attention. Scoring some good wins is what got people's attention.

He was by no means a great fighter. But he had some ability.

Doesn't the fact that Firpo was, frankly, rubbish at boxing but still managed to beat top contenders and very neary beat Dempsey prove that these early 20th century pugilists were crude and primitive creatures compared to the modern-day masters of the fistic arts, like Roy Jones? I think it does.

[Ambling Alp II]

It's not a fact that Firpo was rubbish.
The light heavyweight division was awful when Jones was the champ. There was one fight out there for Jones for more than 5 years. It never happened.

[Teddy's Toupee]

It's not a fact that Firpo was rubbish.
The light heavyweight division was awful when Jones was the champ. There was one fight out there for Jones for more than 5 years. It never happened.

Not as awful as the early 20th century heavyweight division was.

[Ambling Alp II]

Jeffries, Johnson, Langford, Jeannette, McVey, Wills, Dempsey, Tunney etc. was worse than David Telesco, Richard Hall, Glenn Kelly etc. Wow.