BoxRec - User contributions [en]

Fight:327159

2010-04-10T23:07:55Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>327159</fight>
From ''The Oregonian'':

:Young Firpo has fought in Portland seven times and in every fight he had here he gave the boys plenty of action. Firpo won four of the six, lost one. The defeat was by Leo Lomski -- that sudden, devastating right-hand knockout in the second round, after Firpo apparently had Leo going from a barrage of crashing punches. Leo out-smarted him into the opening for his right hand and that awful wallop.

:But even in this fight Firpo had the boys and girls standing in their seats and shouting up to the sudden denouement. It certainly looked for two rounds as if the knockout would be just the other way.

:Of his six victorious fights Firpo won four by knockout. And he wasn't picking on set-ups.

:He knocked out Ray Pelkey, the Oakland trial horse, in his first Portland appearance in two rounds.

:Then he battled Harry Dillon to a ten-round decision --- but had Dillon on the floor.

:Next he got a ten-round decision over Del Fontaine, foxy Del weaving and clinching and retreating in a desperate effort to save himself after being floored. Later, in Seattle, Firpo knocked him out.

:Then he knocked out tough Pete Cerkan in two rounds. Firpo didn't even hit Pete on the jaw for the knockout --- the punch that paralyzed Cerkan and dropped him for the first of four successive knockdowns was on the forehead.

:Next he won a technical knockout in the tenth over Herman Ratzlaff.

:And his sixth and last, prior to the Lomski fight, was a six-round knockout of Wesley Ketchell in a great battle. Firpo took Ketchell's best and then finished him.

:Firpo is a freak. He's what you call "a crazy fighter," for he's apt to do anything in the ring. His style is all his own --- in essence it consists in doing the unexpected. Firpo with his peculiar bobbing and weaving is very difficult to hit and harder yet to outbox. When you expect him to his with his left he smashes violently with his right, and vice versa, and he throws these punches from seemingly impossible angles.

:When he fought Ketchell he worried Wes by adopting alternately a right-handed and then a southpaw stance against him. The round he knocked him out in Firpo was fighting left-handed thus meeting Ketchell at his won style. Ketchell was so puzzled he didn't know what to do nor what punch to throw.

:That's one of Firpo's many peculiarities. He actually can fight left handed as easily as right, and his left hook, comes near being his best punch. Against Georgie Dixon Tuesday night, he's like as not to start fighting left-handed and upset all Dixon's carefully laid plans against a left-hander.

:It's a fight that ought to be a fight. Nobody ever accused George Dixon of being anybody's setup. Georgie is fearless, and his favorite style is to get in close and whang with that right hand. And as everybody knows, he has a right to whang with. There's no question at all about Georgie's knockout punch, or that he still has it. In three fights preceding this one, he won all three by knockout. One of the knockouts was of Gene O'Grady, the southern Oregon champ, with O'Grady outweighing him by 12 pounds.

:Georgie is a smarter battler than you might think, from his slugging tactics and is absolutely confident of his ability to beat Firpo. Georgie has a style of campaign all mapped out for Firpo ---"I won't tip it off other than to say that, of course, it involves a course of treatment of high-handed shots to the jaw and stomach." It's how Georgie expects to get in to throw those right-hand shots that is the secret.

:Firpo won't have much weight advantage. He began training last Sunday at 178 1/2. By Friday, after six days of work, which included four to five miles on the road each morning, he was down to 173. By today he'll probably be at 171, and he is likely to enter ring at just about that weight --- not over 173 anyhow.

:Dixon Friday night after two weeks of the hardest work he ever did ----- Georgie is past his irresponsible kid days now and takes boxing more seriously than ever before, and really works --- weight 166, so there won't be much difference.

:Young Firpo hasn't indulged in the luxury of a $5 round sparring partners for this fight, but he did give big Denny Lenhart $2.50 a round to go two rounds with him Thursday.

:In the second of the two rounds Firpo smashed Lenhart such an awful left hook that he not only left Lenhart groggy but bruised his own forearm. Nothing serious; it was just a bruise. But that's how hard Firp was hitting.

:Firpo nurses two ambitions. One is to fight Leo Lomski again and wipe out that knockout, which he fervently insists was an accidental punch with one of his own. The other is to fight --- who do you suppose? Why, Maxie Rosenbloom.

:"I saw Maxie fight Fred Lenhart in Spokane two years ago, and I saw him again against Lomski in Portland Tuesday night," said Firpo. "Let me tell you this, he won't slap me around that way. I won't be where he slaps. I'm sort of a 'crazy fighter' myself, I guess, from what they say, and I think my style is exactly the thing not only to slap Maxie down, but maybe out. Lomski hit him plenty in those second and third rounds, and I know I can hit him. The man I want to fight next is Maxie Rosenbloom and laugh it off if you can. Maxie and his cuffs don't frighten me a bit."

:Yes, and Firpo means it, and it may even come to pass.

:If Firpo can knock out Georgie Dixon--which no one has yet succeeded in doing--Ralph Gruman promises him a chance against Rosenbloom.

----

Fight:327159

2010-04-10T23:05:06Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>327159</fight>
From ''The Oregonian'':

:Young Firpo has fought in Portland seven times and in every fight he had here he gave the boys plenty of action. Firpo won four of the six, lost one. The defeat was by Leo Lomski -- that sudden, devastating right-hand knockout in the second round, after Firpo apparently had Leo going from a barrage of crashing punches. Leo out-smarted him into the opening for his right hand and that awful wallop.

:But even in this fight Firpo had the boys and girls standing in their seats and shouting up to the sudden denouement. It certainly looked for two rounds as if the knockout would be just the other way.

:Of his six victorious fights Firpo won four by knockout. And he wasn't picking on set-ups.

:He knocked out Ray Pelkey, the Oakland trial horse, in his first Portland appearance in two rounds.

:Then he battled Harry Dillon to a ten-round decision --- but had Dillon on the floor.

:Next he got a ten-round decision over Del Fontaine, foxy Del weaving and clinching and retreating in a desperate effort to save himself after being floored. Later, in Seattle, Firpo knocked him out.

:Then he knocked out tough Pete Cerkan in two rounds. Firpo didn't even hit Pete on the jaw for the knockout --- the punch that paralyzed Cerkan and dropped him for the first of four successive knockdowns was on the forehead.

:Next he won a technical knockout in the tenth over Herman Ratzlaff.

:And his sixth and last, prior to the Lomski fight, was a six-round knockout of Wesley Ketchell in a great battle. Firpo took Ketchell's best and then finished him.

:Firpo is a freak. He's what you call ''Italic text''"a crazy fighter,"''Italic text'' for he's apt to do anything in the ring. His style is all his own --- in essence it consists in doing the unexpected. Firpo with his peculiar bobbing and weaving is very difficult to hit and harder yet to outbox. When you expect him to his with his left he smashes violently with his right, and vice versa, and he throws these punches from seemingly impossible angles.

:When he fought Ketchell he worried Wes by adopting alternately a right-handed and then a southpaw stance against him. The round he knocked him out in Firpo was fighting left-handed thus meeting Ketchell at his won style. Ketchell was so puzzled he didn't know what to do nor what punch to throw.

:That's one of Firpo's many peculiarities. He actually can fight left handed as easily as right, and his left hook, comes near being his best punch. Against Georgie Dixon Tuesday night, he's like as not to start fighting left-handed and upset all Dixon's carefully laid plans against a left-hander.

:It's a fight that ought to be a fight. Nobody ever accused George Dixon of being anybody's setup. Georgie is fearless, and his favorite style is to get in close and whang with that right hand. And as everybody knows, he has a right to whang with. There's no question at all about Georgie's knockout punch, or that he still has it. In three fights preceding this one, he won all three by knockout. One of the knockouts was of Gene O'Grady, the southern Oregon champ, with O'Grady outweighing him by 12 pounds.

:Georgie is a smarter battler than you might think, from his slugging tactics and is absolutely confident of his ability to beat Firpo. Georgie has a style of campaign all mapped out for Firpo ---''Italic text''"I won't tip it off other than to say that, of course, it involves a course of treatment of high-handed shots to the jaw and stomach." ''Italic text''It's how Georgie expects to get in to throw those right-hand shots that is the secret.

:Firpo won't have much weight advantage. He began training last Sunday at 178 1/2. By Friday, after six days of work, which included four to five miles on the road each morning, he was down to 173. By today he'll probably be at 171, and he is likely to enter ring at just about that weight --- not over 173 anyhow.

:Dixon Friday night after two weeks of the hardest work he ever did ----- Georgie is past his irresponsible kid days now and takes boxing more seriously than ever before, and really works --- weight 166, so there won't be much difference.

:Young Firpo hasn't indulged in the luxury of a $5 round sparring partners for this fight, but he did give big Denny Lenhart $2.50 a round to go two rounds with him Thursday.

:In the second of the two rounds Firpo smashed Lenhart such an awful left hook that he not only left Lenhart groggy but bruised his own forearm. Nothing serious; it was just a bruise. But that's how hard Firp was hitting.

:Firpo nurses two ambitions. One is to fight Leo Lomski again and wipe out that knockout, which he fervently insists was an accidental punch with one of his own. The other is to fight --- who do you suppose? Why, Maxie Rosenbloom.

:''Italic text''"I saw Maxie fight Fred Lenhart in Spokane two years ago, and I saw him again against Lomski in Portland Tuesday night,"''Italic text'' said Firpo. ''Italic text''"Let me tell you this, he won't slap me around that way. I won't be where he slaps. I'm sort of a 'crazy fighter' myself, I guess, from what they say, and I think my style is exactly the thing not only to slap Maxie down, but maybe out. Lomski hit him plenty in those second and third rounds, and I know I can hit him. The man I want to fight next is Maxie Rosenbloom and laugh it off if you can. Maxie and his cuffs don't frighten me a bit."''Italic text''

:Yes, and Firpo means it, and it may even come to pass.

:If Firpo can knock out Georgie Dixon--which no one has yet succeeded in doing--Ralph Gruman promises him a chance against Rosenbloom.

----

Fight:327159

2010-04-06T07:39:54Z

JABARDELLI: Pre-Fight coverage of Young Firpo - Georgie Dixon

Young Firpo has fought in Portland seven times and in every fight he had here he gave the boys plenty of action. Firpo won four of the six, lost one. The defeat was by Leo Lomski -- that sudden, devastating right-hand knockout in the second round, after Firpo apparently had Leo going from a barrage of crashing punches. Leo out-smarted him into the opening for his right hand and that awful wallop.

But even in this fight Firpo had the boys and girls standing in their seats and shouting up to the sudden denouement. It certainly looked for two rounds as if the knockout would be just the other way.

Of his six victorious fights Firpo won four by knockout. And he wasn't picking on set-ups.

He knocked out Ray Pelkey, the Oakland trial horse, in his first Portland appearance in two rounds.

Then he battled Harry Dillon to a ten-round decision --- but had Dillon on the floor.

Next he got a ten-round decision over Del Fontaine, foxy Del weaving and clinching and retreating in a desperate effort to save himself after being floored. Later, in Seattle, Firpo knocked him out.

Then he knocked out tough Pete Cerkan in two rounds. Firpo didn't even hit Pete on the jaw for the knockout --- the punch that paralyzed Cerkan and dropped him for the first of four successive knockdowns was on the forehead.

Next he won a technical knockout in the tenth over Herman Ratzlaff.

And his sixth and last, prior to the Lomski fight, was a six-round knockout of Wesley Ketchell in a great battle. Firpo took Ketchell's best and then finished him.

Firpo is a freak. He's what you call ''Italic text''"a crazy fighter,"''Italic text'' for he's apt to do anything in the ring. His style is all his own --- in essence it consists in doing the unexpected. Firpo with his peculiar bobbing and weaving is very difficult to hit and harder yet to outbox. When you expect him to his with his left he smashes violently with his right, and vice versa, and he throws these punches from seemingly impossible angles.

When he fought Ketchell he worried Wes by adopting alternately a right-handed and then a southpaw stance against him. The round he knocked him out in Firpo was fighting left-handed thus meeting Ketchell at his won style. Ketchell was so puzzled he didn't know what to do nor what punch to throw.

That's one of Firpo's many peculiarities. He actually can fight left handed as easily as right, and his left hook, comes near being his best punch. Against Georgie Dixon Tuesday night, he's like as not to start fighting left-handed and upset all Dixon's carefully laid plans against a left-hander.

It's a fight that ought to be a fight. Nobody ever accused George Dixon of being anybody's setup. Georgie is fearless, and his favorite style is to get in close and whang with that right hand. And as everybody knows, he has a right to whang with. There's no question at all about Georgie's knockout punch, or that he still has it. In three fights preceding this one, he won all three by knockout. One of the knockouts was of Gene O'Grady, the southern Oregon champ, with O'Grady outweighing him by 12 pounds.

Georgie is a smarter battler than you might think, from his slugging tactics and is absolutely confident of his ability to beat Firpo. Georgie has a style of campaign all mapped out for Firpo --- ''Italic text''"I won't tip it off other than to say that, of course, it involves a course of treatment of high-handed shots to the jaw and stomach."''Italic text'' It's how Georgie expects to get in to throw those right-hand shots that is the secret.

Firpo won't have much weight advantage. He began training last Sunday at 178 1/2. By Friday, after six days of work, which included four to five miles on the road each morning, he was down to 173. By today he'll probably be at 171, and he is likely to enter ring at just about that weight --- not over 173 anyhow.

Dixon Friday night after two weeks of the hardest work he ever did ----- Georgie is past his irresponsible kid days now and takes boxing more seriously than ever before, and really works --- weight 166, so there won't be much difference.

Young Firpo hasn't indulged in the luxury of a $5 round sparring partners for this fight, but he did give big Denny Lenhart $2.50 a round to go two rounds with him Thursday.

In the second of the two rounds Firpo smashed Lenhart such an awful left hook that he not only left Lenhart groggy but bruised his own forearm. Nothing serious; it was just a bruise. But that's how hard Firp was hitting.

Firpo nurses two ambitions. One is to fight Leo Lomski again and wipe out that knockout, which he fervently insists was an accidental punch with one of his own. The other is to fight --- who do you suppose? Why, Maxie Rosenbloom.

''Italic text''"I saw Maxie fight Fred Lenhart in Spokane two years ago, and I saw him again against Lomski in Portland Tuesday night,"''Italic text'' said Firpo. ''Italic text''"Let me tell you this, he won't slap me around that way. I won't be where he slaps. I'm sort of a 'crazy fighter' myself, I guess, from what they say, and I think my style is exactly the thing not only to slap Maxie down, but maybe out. Lomski hit him plenty in those second and third rounds, and I know I can hit him. The man I want to fight next is Maxie Rosenbloom and laugh it off if you can. Maxie and his cuffs don't frighten me a bit."''Italic text''

Yes, and Firpo means it, and it may even come to pass.

If Firpo can knock out Georgie Dixon --- which no one has yet succeeded in doing --- Ralph Gruman promises him a chance against Rosenbloom.

Young Firpo

2010-03-02T06:03:58Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:FirpoYng.jpg|left|Young Firpo]]
<boxer>009419</boxer>
'''Managers''': [[Chuck Snyder]] (early career), [[Bobby Evans]] (1930), [[Joe Waterman]] (1934-35), [[Mel Epstein]] (1935-37) 
 

== Biography ==
'''Guido Bardelli''' was born in Barre, Vermont in 1907. When his father died in Vermont, his mother moved the Bardelli family to northern Idaho, ultimately settling in the mountainous mining town of Burke.

Guido bypassed a fling at amateur fighting and engaged in his first professional fight in Mullan, Idaho as a 17 year old against Ben Grenich, a seasoned ring campaigner. The fight lasted one punch from the right hand of teenage Guido. Grenich was knocked out and he was only able to leave the ring with the assistance of his cornermen after regaining his senses.

Nicknamed "Young Firpo" by an old time fighter and trainer, who had seen similarities in Guido to Luis Firpo of Argentina, Guido Bardelli soon became recognized as a knockout sensation unlike any fighter witnessed throughout the history of Pacific Northwest boxing.

A dozen or so fights and he had the Coeur d'Alene Mining District and the Pacific Northwest in his grasp for the combination of his physique, quicksilver feet, hand speed and dynamite punching power, captured the imagination of fight fans who realized that within their midst was the makings of a world champion.

He was called "Young Firpo" by the media and "Guido" or "Firp" by those closest to him. The media also tagged him with the sobriquet of "the Wild Bull of Burke."
[[file:Firpo.Young.Bardelli.jpg|frame|<center>Young Firpo</center>]]
Young Firpo's fighting style and vicious punching was described by sport's writers of the time, including the likes of L.H. Gregory, Don McCloud, Dan Walton, [[Billy Stepp]], and Reddy Gallagher, in terms that dramatically recognized that Young Firpo was unique in the annals of boxing history. For example, in a 1937 Portland Oregonian editorial, Gregory wrote ''"There's only one Young Firpo on earth. No other battler, anywhere, fights as he does. His is one of those peculiar styles a man has to be born with."''

[[L.H. Gregory]], the dean of Pacific Northwest boxing writers, in a 1971 ''Portland Oregonian'' editorial, recalled the exploits of Young Firpo when he described Firpo and wrote that he had ''"never seen more active fighting in the ring,"'' in more than fifty years as a sports writer, than the ''"sensational,"'' overwhelming force of Young Firpo. ''"Young Firpo was unforgettable,?'' he wrote.

His fight career commenced in 1924 and he retired from the ring in 1937. There were many great light heavyweights during that era and Young Firpo's record reveals that he took on all who were willing to enter the ring with him. As one's mind drifts to a bygone era, the names and visages of some of the opponents he faced ... Harry Dillon, Jimmy Darcy, Del Fontaine, Pete Cerkan, Frankie Wine, Dusty Miller, George Dixon, Tiger Thomas, Fred Lenhart, Leo Lomski, Wesley KO Ketchell, George Manley, KO White, Tiger Jack Fox, and John Henry Lewis ... eventually emerge from the shadows of the past and into the ring spotlight, again awaiting the clang of the bell to face the lethal and sensational punching capabilities of Young Firpo.

After capturing the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Title by dethroning Ketchell, and engaging in multiple defenses, the consensus was that it might be easier to win the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World than it was to dethrone the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Champion, at least while the title was being held by Young Firpo. Included among those who sought to dethrone Young Firpo, but who failed in the process, were George Manley, the railroader from Denver who perennially contended for the light heavyweight throne; Wesley KO Ketchell, the sensational southpaw knockout slugger who ruined many an aspirant's career; Tiger Jack Fox, a product of Indianapolis and one of boxing's all-time leading knockout artists; and John Henry Lewis, generally recognized as one of the top ten light heavyweights of all time.

Early in 1934, Young Firpo and Maxie Rosenbloom signed to fight for the light heavyweight championship, the match to take place in Portland during the Summer. As reported in a Butte, Montana, newspaper, the following captured the high regard Firpo was held by a legion of boxing writers:

''"Young Firpo, light heavyweight champion of the Pacific Coast, rated in the February issue of the boxing magazine as being the seventh greatest 170 pounder in the world, arrived in Butte from his home in Idaho yesterday to visit with his trainer, Mel Epstein. Firpo is signed to fight Maxie Rosenbloom for the title this summer at Multnomah Stadium in Portland, Ore. The bout is scheduled to go 15 rounds and will be the first title bout ever held in the coast city.

''Many sports writers of the Pacific Coast who have seen the Idaho miner in action give him an even chance to take Rosenbloom's crown. A terrific puncher with an unorthodox style of milling, Firpo has become the most sought-after fighter in the West.''

''The Wild Bull of Idaho holds two wins over Leo Lomski, stopped Wesley Ketchell, Roy Williams, and George Manley while he also defeated Tom Patrick, and George Dixon, besides a score of other first class fighters.''

''Firpo will remain in Butte for several weeks and will start light training here in a few days for pending bouts in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Chicago. Plans are afoot to have Firpo fight one of the world's best light heavies here this month."''''
[[file:Firpo.Lenhart.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Young Firpo (left) & Fred Lenhart]]
Tragically, a disagreement over Firpo's percentage of the gate receipts lead to the cancellation of what would have been a classic match between the "terrific puncher" and a stylist --- the relentless slugging and blinding speed of Young Firpo against the defensive wizardry of title holder "Slapsy" Maxie Rosenbloom. Later in the year, in the spring of 1934, while enroute to Butte, Montana, to fight Gorilla Jones, Young Firpo was involved in a life threatening car wreck where he suffered serious injuries. At the time, the injuries, which hampered him for the balance of his career, were thought to signify the end of his ring career. He was hospitalized and following his release from the hospital, he sought to recuperate within the beloved and rugged mountains enveloping his home in Burke, Idaho. As he started to get his strength back by the late summer of 1934, the Portland Boxing establishment sought again to match Rosenbloom and Young Firpo.

The fight was to be a non-title affair although, Firpo's Pacific Coast title was to be on the line. Again, inexplicably, the fight fell through. Instead, the Portland establishment offered Firpo a "tune-up" fight with none other than Tiger Jack Fox, who had made a name for himself in the boxing world. Firpo ducked none and accepted the challenge and put his coast Light Heavyweight championship on the line against Fox who entered the fight as a heavy favorite due to Firpo's injuries and inactivity as well as the sensational punching display made on the coast by the Tiger, John Linwood Fox.

Firpo, however, rose to the challenge and in an epic August 28,1934, slugfest, which saw both fighters on the canvas in the 5th round, Firpo successfully defended his title against Fox who also has gone on to be generally recognized as one of the all time great Light Heavyweights in the history of boxing.

The ''Portland Oregonian'' described the fifth round in the following manner: ''"Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firp has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes. Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again--and the Bull came up fighting. As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor. Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him. Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling. The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin.''

''He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count. Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.... On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth."''

The Portland, Oregon, boxing establishment was excited in believing, seemingly, that Firpo had lost little of the greatness that he exhibited prior to his being injured in the car accident while traveling to Butte.

Another challenger to Firpo's Pacific Coast title emerged out of Phoenix, Arizona by way of San Francisco. This was the sensational teenage conqueror of the then Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, Maxie Rosenbloom, none other than John Henry Lewis. Lewis on his march to the World Light Heavyweight title and ultimate recognition as one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time, challenged Firpo and the Wild Bull heartily accepted Lewis's challenge for a shot at Firpo's Pacific Coast title.

On September 20, 1934, a youthful and vibrant John Henry Lewis stepped into the ring to swap leather with the great Italian slugger. The Portland Multonomah Stadium crowd witnessed a sensational fight that saw Lewis monopolize the early rounds only to witness Firpo turn the slugging match completely around with a barrage of sensational slugging which had Lewis virtually out on his feet in both the sixth and seventh rounds. A portion of the sixth round was captured by Billy Stepp who wrote: ''"Firpo's lefts and rights connected. One right almost tore Lewis' head off, and if ever a fighter folded, John Henry did, and like an old-fashioned canvas bag."''

The fight was called a draw by referee [[Tom Louttit]]. Steppe wrote: ''"The bell ended the 30-minute party and, of course, Referee Louttit's decision caused a near riot. It was O.K., but if a winner was to be picked yours truly has to give the silverware to the Bull of Burke * * *."'' The fans booed the decision for over 10 minutes. Lewis was fortunate to leave Portland for San Francisco still a viable contender for the world light heavyweight championship rather than having been carted or assisted to his dressing room as so many other of Firpo's opponents had including the likes of Ben Grenich, Mike Brotherton, Buck Ladeaux, KO White, Ray Pelky, Wesley Ketchell, George Manley, Leroy Brown, Nash Garrison, and a host of others.

Firpo challenged and sought for years to engage world light heavyweight champion Maxie Rosenbloom into a title fight but his efforts were in vain. Similarly, after Bob Olin won the championship Firpo challenged Olin to defend his title but this challenge, too, fell on deaf ears. After Olin had taken the title from Rosenbloom, Firpo wired a Spokane promoter: ''"Will fight Fox, Lewis, Rosenbloom or Olin. I fear no man."''
[[file:FirpoYng2.JPG|right|thumb|150px]]
Ironically, after John Henry Lewis defeated Bob Olin in 1935 to take the light heavyweight crown, Firpo challenged Lewis who refused to risk losing his title to Young Firpo, perhaps having in mind their prior encounter when Lewis was given a shot at Firpo's own Pacific Coast light heavyweight title on September 20, 1934. The words written by Billy Steppe, following their Portland slugfest, had become prophetic: ''"Try and get 'em down for a rematch ... yes, just try and get Lewis to go into that ring again. Firpo would but try the other chap."'' Lewis' management wanted no part of risking the title and lucrative paydays in defending it against lesser lights. Young Firpo, on the downside of his career at the time, was still recognized as too dangerous to the Lewis entourage.

Throughout his entire ring career, with the exception of a brief interlude as a teenager while his career was starting and he was in the managerial hands of [[Chuck Snyder]], Young Firpo never had a fight manager. He trusted no one who called himself a manager. Irrespective, Mel Epstein became his trainer for a great many of his fights during the 1930s and it was Epstein who was in the ring with Young Firpo during many stirring epic battles including those he had with Leo Lomski, Tiger Jack Fox, Wesley KO Ketchell, and John Henry Lewis.

In a late November, 1971, gathering of boxing notables in Los Angeles, a Mel Epstein trained and managed fighter, Rick Farris, was invited by Suey Welch to attend a luncheon where approximately 18 boxing notables had gathered. Welch knew that Farris had a natural affinity for the history of boxing.

Mel Epstein had touted the seemingly unbelievable exploits and punching power of Young Firpo to an impressionable Rick Farris in striving to point out to Farris what Epstein had seen and been exposed to during his association with Young Firpo in terms of Firpo's strength, punching power, and endurance to the point that Farris began to challenge Epstein's credibility. Undoubtedly, Epstein, as a fight manager, was motivating and Farris was not buying into all of what was being offered to him.

Included at the Los Angeles luncheon were Jimmy McLarnin, Gorilla Jones, [[George Parnassus]], [[Suey Welch]], [[Mel Epstein]], Henry Armstrong, Ike Williams, Enrique Bolanos, Lou Nova, Mike Mazurki and others. Fighter-historian Rick Farris was absorbed and awe stricken as he listened to boxing story after boxing story emanate from the mouths and hearts of those in whose company he had been invited. Farris' ears were heightened when he heard the name ''"Young Firpo"'' mentioned by George Parnassus in a conversation with McLarnin and others.

At this point, seeking more than anything a desire to test the credibility of his own fight manager, Mel Epstein, Farris entered into the discussion by asking George Parnassus, ''"How good was this Young Firpo?"'' Before Parnassus could answer the question, Jimmy McLarnin responded to Farris' inquiry by stating,''"Oh, let me just tell you that Young Firpo was the greatest fighter I ever saw!"''

Then, without a break in the conversation, both McLarnin and Parnassus offered their opinions that ''"Young Firpo was the hardest hitting light heavyweight I have ever seen." '' To drive the point home further, Parnassus stated to Rick Farris, ''"You think that Bob Foster can hit hard? Young Firpo could hit harder than any of them, including Archie Moore and Bob Foster,"'' a point which was affirmed by Jimmy McLarnin whose career, incidentally, paralleled that of Young Firpo during the 1920s and 1930s. McLarnin, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, had seen Firpo fight on the Pacific Coast many times during Firpo's reign of terror.

Up until the date of his death, Mel Epstein lamented to all who would listen, the fact that, in Young Firpo, he had a world's champion in his grasp and, like water slipping through one's fingers, that championship eluded him as it had eluded Young Firpo. Epstein stated in a 1970s interview that ''"Before that damn car wreck, Firpo was unbeatable, he was practically unbeatable!" ''

Although Young Firpo never won the light heavyweight championship of the world, perhaps Billy Stepp summed up his fight career in a single sentence. Stepp wrote near the sunset of Firpo's career: ''"A world's champion was Young Firpo if ever there was one."'' But then, again, as his family and friends so well know, there was much more to Young Firpo than the world of boxing and any championship.

== Post Boxing Career Activities ==
*Firpo was briefly a referee for the Portland (OR) Boxing Commission in 1945: [http://www.boxrec.com/official_search.php?official_id=6748]
*In the spring of 1950, it was reported in the ''Spokesman-Review'' that Firpo had begun promoting boxing shows in Wallace, Idaho. Firpo had headlined in the Northern Idaho mining town many times during his boxing career.

== Credit ==
The above was written by John A. Bardelli.

----
*Inducted into the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame, March 15, 1974
*Inducted into the Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame: 1974
* Inducted into the [[World Boxing Hall of Fame]]: Class of 2008.
* October 2008 on-line [http://www.411mania.com/sports/boxing/88620/Young-Firpo,-the-Best-Light-Heavywieght-to-Never-Win-a-Title.htm Article]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bardelli, Guido}}
[[Category:World Boxing Hall of Fame Members]]

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Roy Williams

2009-11-29T06:11:48Z

JABARDELLI: corrected spelling of rour to roar

<fight>770606</fight>

After boxing officials were unable to convince George Manley to return to the ring to face Firpo, promoter Joe Waterman announced that Manley had threatened to run out on the bout on Sunday. Upon hearing the announcment the crowd let out a loud roar. Insuring against this, Waterman had brought in Roy (Tiger) Williams of San Francisco, if this occurred. Waterman then announced that Firpo and Williams would box for seven rounds. Firpo came out to start the fight angry, and went right after Williams. After he was staggered by a right hand in the first and his nose was bloodied, he backed off and boxed more carefully. Firpo knocked down Williams in the 3rd, before referee Tom Louttit stopped the bout.

Source: ''Portland Oregonian''

Category:World Boxing Hall of Fame Members

2009-08-30T06:13:37Z

JABARDELLI:

Presented below is the complete list of Inductees into the [[World Boxing Hall of Fame]] (WBHOF). The WBHOF announces its newest inductees around June of each year, and conducts its annual induction ceremonies the following October. Each inductee receives, among other things, [[Steven Harpst]]'s sculpture [[:Image:Prizefighter.Sculpture.jpg|"The Prizefighter"]].

The Class of 2009 (to be inducted October 2009) are:
* Boxer Category: [[Orlando Canizalez]], [[Brian Mitchell]], [[Rafael Herrera]], and [[Lucia Rijker]] (who becomes the very first female boxer inducted into the WBHOF)
* Expanded Category: [[Al Bernstein]], Dr. [[James Jen-kin]], [[Amilcar Brusa]]
* Posthumous Category: [[George Dixon]], [[Alphonse Halimi]], [[Lily Rodriguez]]

See also, [[:Category:Halls of Fame|Halls of Fame]]

{{CategoryTOC}}

Obie Walker

2009-08-12T08:25:08Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:WalkerObie.jpg|left|150px|photo]]<boxer>21583</boxer> 
Originally from Savannah, Ga., 'Bearcat' Obie Walker was a much-avoided heavyweight contender of the 1930s. In his sports column in the July 5 1938 Atlanta Georgian, Ed Danforth wrote: 'Walker became the toast of Paris. He knocked cold every topnotcher he met on the continent. [[Max Schmeling]] shrewdly dodged him, the best of the Englishmen too, sidestepped the squatty brown man who carried lighting bolts in both fists. Competent critics say he could have knocked Schmeling, [[Joe Louis]] and [[Jim Braddock]] in one night within the space of 10 rounds.' Highlights of Walker's career include wins over [[Tony Galento]], [[Leroy Haynes]], [[Elmer Ray]] and [[George Godfrey]]; the last being for the so-called World Colored Heavyweight Title.

Another opinion: the above is an overstatement, as shown by Walker's spotty record. He had his best run in Europe, but still lost there to Jack London, Larry Gains, and twice to Gustave Limousin. He was fleet of foot, and certainly a good fighter, but his short stature would have put him at a disadvantage against Louis, Schmeling, and other top-notchers.

Another opinion: Walker's shorter stature was what made him the dynamo and force to be avoided. To suggest that because Sam Langford, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson would have been handicapped in a fight with Louis or Ali because of their height is not a valid observation born out by fact. The short stature of each is what contributed to the explosiveness of each as it did Walker.

[[Category:African American Boxers|Walker, Obie]]

Tommy Loughran vs. Leo Lomski

2009-06-03T03:36:31Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>19714</fight>

'''From the pen of John A. Bardelli:''' I'll share with you and the readers the following insights which have been garnered from a myriad of sectors, including my having conducted interviews with a host of fighters, managers, trainers, fans, and the like from the 1920's and 1930's generation of fighters including conversations with and interviews with a fighter who fought Leo Lomski three times, himself. Additionally, I have my own reservoir of historical data collected through the years on Leo Lomski era fighters. I have much reason to garner as much data as I can concerning the life and career of Lomski.

In the first round of the Lomski-Loughran Championship fight, Lomski came out of his corner throwing caution to the wind having told Eddie Eicher, his manager, ''"Don't worry, Eddie, I'll flatten him."'' True to his word, Lomski connected with his vaunted right hand and dropped Loughran early in the round.

Mindful of the September 1927 Dempsey-Tunney long count, Lomski turned to beat a hastened retreat to a neutral corner so the referee would not delay his count. Ironically, as he did so, he collided with the referee causing him to delay the start of his count. Lomski and Eicher later contended that Loughran was on the canvas for well over ten seconds. Indeed, pictures were published in the press coverage of the fight revealing the collision which took place between Lomski and the referee while Loughran sits stunned on the seat of his pants, staring blankly at the canvas and, seemingly, unable to rise.

When Loughran arose from the canvas at the count of nine, his legs were rubbery and his balance impaired. Lomski pursued the light heavyweight champion with a vengeance. Before the round was over, Lomski's right hand connected on Loughran's chin a second time dumping him backside for the second time in the round. Loughran arose again at the count of nine, again unsteady but was able to keep out of harm's way until the bell rang to end the round.

As the bell rang ending that first round, incredibly, Lomski walked to his corner hurt perhaps worse than Loughran, who had not landed any significant punch other than a few jabs to keep some distance between himself and the onslaught being thrown at him. Unknown to the screaming fans, some still standing, after watching in awe at the sensational punching display put on by Leo Lomski, and unknown, also, to Tommy Loughran, as he sat recovering in his corner while shaking the cobwebs from his head, was the fact that Leo Lomski had broken his right hand during his two fisted first round onslaught. Lomski related that he felt his hand ''"crunch"'' when he dropped Loughran the second time in the round.

For the balance of the fight, Lomski had to fight with only his left hand and used his right hand only a smattering of times from the second through the fifteenth round. Loughran was roughed up on the inside when Lomski was able to get inside. He landed jarring body punches to the champion's rib cage and midsection, broken hand or not. Ring Magazine, in covering the fight, described the terrible body beating Loughran had suffered during the fight. Nevertheless, Lomski's right hand was essentially nullified as a vital weapon and the ringside fans, boxing writers, and Loughran, himself, because they did not know of Lomski's tragic misfortune, thought it was simply a case of Loughran's ring generalship overcoming the westerner's slugging attack, which eventually allowed Loughran to retain his title.

Despite Lomski's left hand body punches, Loughran was able to land enough of a series of his own left jabs and right crosses throughout the fight to convince the judges and the referee that he deserved to retain his title.

After the contest, Loughran said that Lomski was the ''"toughest man I have ever fought."'' To Lomski's chagrin, he and Eddie Eicher clamored for a rematch but Loughran refused to again risk his crown against the fists of the Aberdeen Assassin despite a Ring Magazine entreat penned by editor and owner Nat Fleischer that Loughran give Lomski another title shot.

Though Lomski had been fighting for six years by the time he fought Loughran, his career was, in reality, just getting warmed up. He went on to fight Mike McTigue and won a ten round decision over the former light heavyweight champion. Pete Latzo lost two decisions to Lomski. Lomski and Maxie Rosenbloom fought 6 times, each winning two with two draws thrown in for good measure. However, after Rosenbloom won the light heavyweight title, he would never give Lomski a shot at his crown.

In 1929, Lomski was matched with the ''"Cinderella Man,"'' James J. Braddock. Braddock nearly dropped Lomski in their encounter, with his own right hand, in the first round. But Lomski withstood the shot and revealed enough through the balance of the contest to catch the eyes of referee Arthur Donovan and the judges who awarded him a unanimous decision. A return match between the two took place a year later in 1930. This time, Braddock did drop Lomski twice, once in the second round and again in the fifth round, but Lomski was nevertheless awarded ''"the eleven day decision"'' when it was determined that referee Dave Miller had made a mistake on his scorecard and a favorable Braddock decision was reversed eleven days after the fight had taken place.

Leo Lomski was never again given an opportunity to fight for the light heavyweight championship of the world after the Loughran fight.

In an interview before his death in 1975, Lomski related that he had broken his right hand 31 times in ring fights and he attributed the loss of his right hand as the main reason that he retired from the ring in 1936.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-30T04:51:55Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>297314</fight>

=== '''MINER PIPES PETE DOWN IN SECOND''' ===

By [[Don McLeod]]

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young Firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

'''Pole Came Back'''

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 count, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Harry Dillon

2009-03-29T23:56:25Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96865</fight>

=== '''IDAHO MINER SMASHES WIN OVER CANUCK''' ===

By [[Don McLeod]]

His face smudged with coal dust, a strapping youth arose from the darkened depths of an Idaho mine five years ago, blinked a pair of astonishingly wide eyes at the unaccustomed daylight and struck out for the nearest gymnasium. He never ventured into the mines again.

Last night, this same youth made another ascension. But instead of rising to a mere street level, as he did five years ago, lifted himself to a high spot on the fistic horizon of the Pacific coast, if not the United States.

The husky fellow, who today is perched among the top notchers of the light heavyweight division, is Young Firpo, alias Guido Bardelli, Burke, Idaho's bid for pugilistic fame.

'''ENERGETIC FIGHT'''

Firpo slammed, ripped and bobbed his way to the coveted heights at the Auditorium last night when he won a slashing ten-round decision over Harry Dillon, who hails from the distant fields of Winnipeg.

Never since his first fight here, when he kayoed [[Ray Pelkey|Ray Pelky]], did Young Firpo appear to better advantage than he did against Dillon last night. His margin of victory was so wide that after the fifth round the Canadian's only hope for a win rested on a knockout punch, something that never materialized. Firpo was given every one of the ten rounds and the verdict of the judges and Referee [[Tom Louttit]] was a mere formality.

'''FIRPO RIDES HARRY'''

Propelling his arms in windmill style, the swarthy boy from the Gem state kept on top of Dillon throughout the entire bout, never once allowing him to get set for a solid punch and, meanwhile scoring with a volley of lefts and rights to Harry's face and body.

Twice Dillon dropped to the canvas, the victim of one of Firpo's wild overhand smashes. Coming out of a clinch in the opening of the third round, the Burke miner caught Dillon on the chin with a looping left and the Winnipeg walloper fell to the resin.

He bounced up without a count but only to run into another lethal smack. Again he dusted the board and this time remained down until a count of four had been tolled. Firpo tried his best to end the bout in this session, but Harry's marvelous courage and ring experience and Bardelli's wildness kept him from taking the long count.

'''ROUNDS REPEAT'''

Each round was but a repetition, with Firpo charging like a maddened bull, connecting frequently with hard smashes, and Dillon, his brow knitted in a puzzled frown, futilely seeking some way to stop the relentless and unorthodox charge. Firpo felt the canvas, himself, but each time being carried to the floor by the force of his wild charges across the ring. In the sixth, he tore into Dillon and the impact hurled both battlers over the ropes and into the unguarded laps of several cash customers. Firpo's weight was given at 174½ and Dillon's as 174½.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-29T23:55:30Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>297314</fight>

=== '''MINER PIPES PETE DOWN IN SECOND''' ===

By [[Don McLeod]]

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young Firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

'''Pole Came Back'''

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-28T03:12:04Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>297314</fight>

=== '''MINER PIPES PETE DOWN IN SECOND''' ===

By [[Don McCloud]]

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young Firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

'''Pole Came Back'''

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-28T02:32:33Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>297314</fight>

=== '''MINER PIPES PETE DOWN IN SECOND''' ===

By [[Don McCloud]]

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

'''Pole Came Back'''

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-28T02:30:40Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>297314</fight>

=== '''MINER PIPES PETE DOWN IN SECOND''' ===

By [[Don McCloud]]

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

Pole Came Back

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-28T02:27:57Z

JABARDELLI:

Miner Pipes Pete Down In Second

By Don McLeod.

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of fight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

Pole Came Back

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Young Firpo vs. Pete Cerkan (2nd meeting)

2009-03-28T02:26:50Z

JABARDELLI: New page: Miner Pipes Pete Down In Second By Don McLeod. Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the ...

Miner Pipes Pete Down In Second

By Don McLeod.

Young Firpo, who as a schoolboy at Burke, Idaho, answered to the name of Guido Bardelli, is one of the deadliest punchers ever to trod the resined canvas of a Portland ring. Ever since Young firpo, whose ring manners are startling similar to his namesake, Louis Firpo, came to Portland as an unknown pug from somewhere up north, he has been kicking opponents silly with apparent ease.

First, it was Ray Pelky, the wily Oakland veteran. He went the way of flight flesh in the second round. Next came Del Fontaine. Then Dillon. Last night, at the Auditorium, Pete Cerkan offered his massive frame for sacrifice and Firpo accepted, gracefully and expertly, by scoring a knockout over the Pe Ell blonde in less than two rounds of what had been hopefully billed as a ten-round grudge affair.

There was plenty of action dished up in the abbreviated stanza with most of it furnished by Firpo. After feeling each other out in the opening round, the two started the fireworks as soon as the second stanza bell had been tolled. Cerkan swung a couple of wild ones, then sat down on the floor, placed there by a well directed right hook deliver by the obliging miner.

Pole Came Back

Cerkan took a short count and gamely bounced into the windmill once more. But it was just the same thing again. He dropped to the mat. Four more times he fell, each time the victim of Firpo's murderous swings. And just as many times he came back. The last time he arose tottering, but not until Tom Louttit, referee, had already tolled of the fatal 10 count. Cerkan, obviously was so shaken that he failed to realize he was being counted out, and jumped up in the belief that the fight was still on. After the brawl, Louttit said regardless of the 10 counts, he possibly would have stopped the fight as Cerkan was in no condition to continue.

Young Firpo is one of the best seen here in years and Cerkan is one of the most courageous. He was outclassed but never outgamed.

Mel Epstein

2009-01-16T05:24:58Z

JABARDELLI: /* Biography */

== Biography ==
Mel Epstein was a boxing manager and promoter in the Western United States between the 1920s and 1970s. He originally started working with boxers in Butte, Montana, during the 1920s. While in Butte, he also promoted shows for the local American legion. Amongst the notables he worked with out of Butte, were; [[Young Firpo]], [[Hubert (Kid) Dennis]], [[Ray Cote]] and [[Ritchie Fontaine]].

In the 1940s, Epstein would move his operations to Seattle, where he promoted in 1946 and 1947. After leaving Seattle, he resurfaced in Yakima, Washington in the spring of 1948, where he would work briefly as [[George Chemeres]] matchmaker. In 1959, Epstein would become the matchmaker for the Spokane Sportsmen's Club, most notably developing [[Kirk Barrow]] into a top-10 Light Heavyweight contender briefly. After leaving Spokane, Epstein, would move to Los Angeles, where he would continue to handle fighters until his death in 1980. Included amongst the fighters he managed in the 1970s while in Los Angeles were [[Mike Nixon]], [[Rick Farris]], and [[Randy De La O]].

== External Link ==
*[http://www.boxrec.com/list_shows.php?human_id=413745&cat=promoter Promotional/Matchmaking Record]

[[Category:Managers|Epstein, Mel]]
[[Category:Promoters|Epstein, Mel]]
[[Category:Matchmakers|Epstein, Mel]]

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T05:15:10Z

JABARDELLI: /* YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX */

<fight>96017</fight>

'''The Oregonian, August 29, 1934'''

=='''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM TIGER JACK FOX==

'''Coast Champion Retains Title by Taking Bout'''

'''CLASH GOES TEN ROUNDS'''

'''Both Fighters Score Knockdowns in Wild Affray; Brown Loses to Ritchie Fontaine'''

Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger Jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

The most spectacular round ws the fifth, in which each fighter went to the floor.

'''Each Knocked Down'''

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firpo has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes.

Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting.

As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor.

Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him.

Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling.

The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count.

Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

'''Rounds Five to Three'''

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4.

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T05:14:33Z

JABARDELLI: /* YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX */

<fight>96017</fight>

'''The Oregonian, August 29, 1934'''

=='''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX==

'''Coast Champion Retains Title by Taking Bout'''

'''CLASH GOES TEN ROUNDS'''

'''Both Fighters Score Knockdowns in Wild Affray; Brown Loses to Ritchie Fontaine'''

Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger Jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

The most spectacular round ws the fifth, in which each fighter went to the floor.

'''Each Knocked Down'''

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firpo has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes.

Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting.

As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor.

Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him.

Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling.

The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count.

Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

'''Rounds Five to Three'''

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4.

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T04:52:35Z

JABARDELLI: Greater Coverage of Fight

<fight>96017</fight>

'''The Oregonian, August 29, 1934'''

=='''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX==

'''Coast Champion Retains Title by Taking Bout'''

'''CLASH GOES TEN ROUNDS'''

'''Both Fighters Score Knockdowns in Wild Affray; Brown Loses to Ritchie Fontaine'''

''"Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger Jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

The most spectacular round ws the fifth, in which each fighter went to the floor.

'''Each Knocked Down'''

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firpo has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes.

Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting.

As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor.

Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him.

Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling.

The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count.

Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

'''Rounds Five to Three'''

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4."''

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T04:51:25Z

JABARDELLI: GREATER FIGHT COVERAGE

<fight>96017</fight>

'''The Oregonian, August 29, 1934'''

=='''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX==

'''Coast Champion Retains Title by Taking Bout'''

'''CLASH GOES TEN ROUNDS'''

'''Both Fighters Score Knockdowns in Wild Affray; Brown Loses to Ritchie Fontaine'''

''"Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger Jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

The most spectacular round ws the fifth, in which each fighter went to the floor.

Each Knocked Down

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firpo has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes.

Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting.

As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor.

Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him.

Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling.

The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count.

Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

'''Bold text''' Rounds Five to Three'''Bold text'''

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4."''

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T04:44:20Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96017</fight>

The Oregonian, August 29, 1934.

=='''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX==

''"Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger Jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

The most spectacular round ws the fifth, in which each fighter went to the floor.

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firp has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes. Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting. As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor. Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him. Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling. The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count. Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4."''

Young Firpo vs. Tiger Jack Fox (1st meeting)

2009-01-16T04:38:58Z

JABARDELLI: Greater Fight Coverage

<fight>96017</fight>

The Oregonian, August 29, 1934.

== Headline text == '''Bold text'''YOUNG FIRPO WINS BATTLE FROM FOX'''Bold text'''== Headline text ==

''"Young Firpo, the Bull from Burke, retained his title of light heavyweight champion of the Pacific coast at the Multnomah stadium last night by winning a ten-round decision over the challenger, Tiger Jack Fox of Indianapolis, before 6000 boisterous customers. Referee Louttit's verdict was evidently very popular. When he lifted Young Firpo's hand a joyous shout burst from thousands of throats.

There were times when it looked extremely dubious whether the Bull either would keep his championship or be on his feet at the finish. There were rounds in which Tiger jack opened up and threw battering volleys that caused Firpo to rock and roll on his stocky legs.

But Tiger Jack did not keep it up and the weaving, unconventional Firpo always rallied in the pinch to drive him back and rock him in turn with heavy punching broadsides of his own.

Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firp has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes. Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting. As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor. Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him. Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling. The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin. He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count. Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.

On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth....

Firpo defended his light heavy championship, weighing 172 1/4 pound or 2 3/4 pounds under the limit. Fox weighed 2 1/2 pounds more at 174 3/4."''

Young Firpo vs. Tommy Lynch

2008-10-12T04:28:38Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>1271498</fight>

"The boxing contest drew a big crowd and the fans saw a real fight when Firpo of Burke won a technical knockout over Tommy Lynch, the champion of Montana. It was the old time Firpo in the ring last night. He started off with a rush and never quit going after his man. In fact he carried the fight to Lynch so fast that the Montana lad never had much of a chance to do any aggressive work, the Burke terror keeping him busy trying to defend himself. The fight ended at the end of the seventh, Lynch refusing to come up for the eighth after being practically out during the seventh, hanging on the greater portion of the round. Firpo put up as fine a battle as he has ever shown in his long career. He may be getting along in years but he still packs dynamite in either hand and swings as hard as ever." ''Wallace Press Times'' (Wallace, Idaho)

Young Firpo vs. George Manley (3rd meeting)

2008-09-07T08:23:32Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96007</fight>

'''THE MORNING OREGONIAN, APRIL 19, 1933'''

== '''MANLEY LOSES BOUT ON TECHNICAL KAYO''' ==

'''Firpo Drops Denver Fighter in First Round.'''

'''LOUTTIT STOPS FIGHT'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

Wild Bull of Burke Regains Disputed Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Title.

A thunderbolt, an Idaho mountain avalanche, a kick from the left foot of an army mule and the left glove of Young Firpo, nee Guido Bardelli, the bull from Burke, swinging in a long left hook, all landed simultaneously on the chin of George Manley of Denver in the first round of their return fight at the auditorium last night.

Young Firpo, by a knockout, in one round!

The lights went out for Denver, that's all, even though Manley tottered back on his feet at seven, only to be floored ferociously by Firpo again.

This second punch knocked Manley into the back corner, absolutely helpless, though once again he managed to get to his feet.

He was weaving and half paralyzed. He was out on his feet so completely that his eyes were
crossed. He stared from glassy eyeballs.

The referee again waved Firpo away. He looked at the helpless Manley, and at once walked over to Firpo and raised his hand.

“I stopped it when I did," said Louttit, "to prevent a fatality. Another punch probably would have killed Manley, he was so far gone."

It all happened so quickly that another packed house of excited customers was stunned. Not until several seconds did realization of Firpo's startling victory break through. Then they burst into wild cheers for their favorite.

Just two minutes --- that's all it took Firpo to win back the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific Coast that Manley had held for exactly two weeks.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'''PORTLAND NEWS TELEGRAM, APRIL 19, 1933'''

'''THE SECOND GUESS By Billy Stepp'''

== '''NOW WHO IS THE REAL CHAMPION''' ==

NOW who's coast light heavyweight champion?

That left hook to the chin proved beyond all doubt that Young Firpo is everything the papers said about him.

When Firpo laid Manley away in slumberland in two minutes and seven seconds Tuesday night,he did something that few have done and will never will do . . . George Manley is a mighty good fighter, and if he would have walked the chalk line a few years ago, nothing could have stopped him from being a champion.

You could hear ugly rumors on the way to the exits the other night that Manley was drunk and had been drinking . . . that's silly. Dr. Scott gave the boys a double-O in the afternoon and a few minutes before the fighters came into the ring. The doc himself examined both fighters and their metal cups placing a special guard with each boxer until they shook hands and started swinging.

Manley wanted to beat Firpo . . . it wasn't a newspaper grudge battle . . . it was on the level . . . the hard feelings were in the raw.

The Denver boxer made the mistake of trying to slug with Firpo. Had he been contented to box and box, I for one doubt if Firpo would have copped him . . . sure it was a lucky punch . . . we agree on that, but it was a perfect punch and one that would have knocked out the best in the game . . . don't let em tell you that miner from the wind swept plains of Burke, Idaho, can't hit . . . he can, and how!

Homer Smith

2008-08-03T14:19:26Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Smith.Homer.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Homer Smith]]
<boxer>010589</boxer>

Per the April 24, 1927 ''Spokane Spokesman-Review'' newspaper, Smith had traveled 300,000 miles in 15 years of boxing. He had been to France, Germany, Belgium, England, Hawaii, Cuba and Spain. He had met Firpo, [[Harry Wills]], [[Jack Sharkey]], [[Harry Greb]] (who had just died), [[Jack Dempsey]], [[Jack Johnson]], [[Willie Meehan]], [[Bartley Madden]], and many others.

Homer Smith was born May 28, 1893 on a farm near Kalamazoo, Michigan and died on May 6, 1971 in Pawpaw, Michigan. Buried in Glendale Cemetery. Death was caused from an abdominal aneurysm. He lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Grantwood, NJ and Ypsilanti, Mi. He also rented in south Dearborn, Michigan for two years while he worked as a plant protection employee at the Rouge plant for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mi. during World War II. One summer, his son, H. James Smith worked in the steel mill. The son seldom saw his father because they worked different shifts even though they slept in the same living quarters in Dearborn. At the age of 18, Homer Smith went into professional boxing. He journeyed approximately 300,000 miles for his 187 fights He fought as many as 14 fights in one year. He received $0.75 for his first professional fight. The biggest purse for fighting he received was $5,100. He was paid $218 for the Jack Dempsey fight. Homer Smith was an accomplished boxer, who would often comment that of all of his achievements, his proudest was "I fought the 3 greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Jack Dempsey, Jack Sharkey and Jack Johnson."

One time famous sports writer Damon Runyoun referred to Homer Smith as "Old Weeping Willow from Pawpaw." In October 1936, Homer Smith (age 41) fought his 15 year old son, H. James Smith and a 4 round technical knock out at Pawpaw, Mi as reported by a national news service. In 1937 he coached Pawpaw's Golden Gloves team. A January 19, 1960 Look Magazine article by Jack Dempsey related fight and human interest stories about Dempsey and Homer Smith. Dempsey in his biography refers to Homer Smith as "That clean living kid from Kalamazoo" because Homer Smith never smoked or drank. On April 25, 1968 Homer Smith was presented with a plaque by Ring 32, the Veteran Boxers Association at Carl's Chophouse in Detroit, Michigan. The inscription presented to Homer Smith read "Outstanding Michigan Heavyweight". On October 9, 1971 at the 19th annual dinner and reunion of the Old Time Boxer's Association, Ring 23 of the National Veteran Boxer's Association at Allentown, PA, Homer Smith was one of seven members honored in memoriam.

During WWII, Homer Smith worked in plant production for the Ford Motor Company at the Rouge plant for 2 years. In his later years he worked in a real estate office in Ypsilanti, Mi. In WWI, he was on active duty, trucking ammo and supplies to a French Artillery training camp that had been used as a military training camp since the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. One week before the Armistice of WWI, he was transferred to the First Army in France the day the Armistice was signed. A few days later, he was transferred to U.S. Second Army Headquarters. He inspected and drove tractors and trucks for 6 weeks. Then he boarded the U.S. Cruiser Montana on February 23rd and had his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty when he landed at Hoboken, New Jersey. He then went on to Camp Custer on the boat and at Fort Custer he fought an exhibition boxing fight for the entertainment of the troops. It was a direct result of the popularity of the boxing fights at Camp Custer that the Michigan Boxing Commission was born. There is now a Smith Recreation Hall at Camp Custer.

Homer Smith

2008-08-02T07:56:07Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Smith.Homer.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Homer Smith]]
<boxer>010589</boxer>

Per the April 24, 1927 ''Spokane Spokesman-Review'' newspaper, Smith had traveled 300,000 miles in 15 years of boxing. He had been to France, Germany, Belgium, England, Hawaii, Cuba and Spain. He had met Firpo, [[Harry Wills]], [[Jack Sharkey]], [[Harry Greb]] (who had just died), [[Jack Dempsey]], [[Jack Johnson]], [[Willie Meehan]], [[Bartley Madden]], and many others.

Homer Smith was born May 28, 1893 on a farm near Kalamazoo, Michigan and died on May 6, 1971 in Pawpaw, Michigan. Buried in Glendale Cemetery. Death was caused from an abdominal aneurysm. He lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Grantwood, NJ and Ypsilanti, Mi. He also rented in south Dearborn, Michigan for two years while he worked as a plant protection employee at the Rouge plant for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mi. during World War II. One summer, his son, H. James Smith worked in the steel mill. The son seldom saw his father because they worked different shifts even though they slept in the same living quarters in Dearborn. At the age of 18, Homer Smith went into professional boxing. He journeyed approximately 300,000 miles for his 187 fights He fought as many as 14 fights in one year. He received $0.75 for his first professional fight. The biggest purse for fighting he received was $5,100. He was paid $218 for the Jack Dempsey fight. Homer Smith was an accomplished boxer, who would often comment that of all of his achievements, his proudest was "I fought the 3 greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Jack Dempsey, Jack Sharkey and Jack Johnson."

One time famous sports writer Damon Runyoun referred to Homer Smith as "Old Weeping Willow from Pawpaw." In October 1936, Homer Smith (age 41) fought his 15 year old son, H. James Smith and a 4 round technical knock out at Pawpaw, Mi as reported by a national news service. In 1937 he coached Pawpaw;s Golden Gloves team. A January 19, 1960 Look Magazine article by Jack Dempsey related fight and human interest stories about Dempsey and Homer Smith. Dempsey in his biography refers to Homer Smith as "That clean living kid from Kalamazoo" because Homer Smith never smoked or drank. On April 25, 1968 Homer Smith was presented with a plaque by Ring 32, the Veteran Boxers Association at Carl's Chophouse in Detroit, Mi. The inscription presented to Homer Smith read, "Outstanding Michigan Heavyweight". On October 9, 1971 at the 19th annual dinner and reunion of the Old Time Boxer's Association, Ring 23 of the National Veteran Boxer's Association at Allentown, PA, Homer Smith was one of seven members honored in memoriam.

During WWII, Homer Smith worked in plant production for the Ford Motor Company at the Rouge plant for 2 years. In his later years he worked in a real estate office in Ypsilanti, Mi. In WWI, he was on active duty, trucking ammo and supplies to a French Artillery training camp that had been used as a military training camp since the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. One week before the Armistice of WWI, he was transferred to the First Army in France the day the Armistice was sighned. A few days later, he was transferred to U.S. Second Army Headquarters. He inspected and drove tractors and trucks for 6 weeks. Then he boarded the U.S. Cruiser Montana on February 23rd, he had his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty when he landed at Hoboken, NJ. He then went on to Camp Custer on the boat and at Fort Custer he fought an exhibition boxing fight for the entertainment of the troops. It was a direct result of the popularity of the boxing fights at Camp Custer that the Michigan Boxing Commission was born. There is now a Smith Recreation Hall at Camp Custer.

Homer Smith

2008-08-02T07:54:15Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Smith.Homer.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Homer Smith]]
<boxer>010589</boxer>

Per the April 24, 1927 ''Spokane Spokesman-Review'' newspaper, Smith had traveled 300,000 miles in 15 years of boxing. He had been to France, Germany, Belgium, England, Hawaii, Cuba and Spain. He had met Firpo, [[Harry Wills]], [[Jack Sharkey]], [[Harry Greb]] (who had just died), [[Jack Dempsey]], [[Jack Johnson]], [[Willie Meehan]], [[Bartley Madden]], and many others.

Homer Smith was born May 28, 1893 on a farm near Kalamazoo, Michigan and died on May 6, 1971 in Pawpaw, Michigan. Buried in Glendale Cemetery. Death was caused from an abdominal aneurysm. He lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Grantwood, NJ and Ypsilanti, Mi. He also rented in south Dearborn, Michigan for two years while he worked as a plant protection employee at the Rouge plant for the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mi. during World War II. One summer, his son, H. James Smith worked in the steel mill. The son seldom saw his father because they worked different shifts even though they slept in the same living quarters in Dearborn. At the age of 18, Homer Smith went into professional boxing. He journeyed approximately 300,000 miles for his 187 fights He fought as many as 14 fights in one year. He received $0.75 for his first professional fight. The biggest purse for fighting he received was $5,100. He was paid $218 for the Jack Dempsey fight.

One time famous sports writer Damon Runyoun referred to Homer Smith as "Old Weeping Willow from Pawpaw." In October 1936, Homer Smith (age 41) fought his 15 year old son, H. James Smith and a 4 round technical knock out at Pawpaw, Mi as reported by a national news service. In 1937 he coached Pawpaw;s Golden Gloves team. A January 19, 1960 Look Magazine article by Jack Dempsey related fight and human interest stories about Dempsey and Homer Smith. Dempsey in his biography refers to Homer Smith as "That clean living kid from Kalamazoo" because Homer Smith never smoked or drank. On April 25, 1968 Homer Smith was presented with a plaque by Ring 32, the Veteran Boxers Association at Carl's Chophouse in Detroit, Mi. The inscription presented to Homer Smith read, "Outstanding Michigan Heavyweight". On October 9, 1971 at the 19th annual dinner and reunion of the Old Time Boxer's Association, Ring 23 of the National Veteran Boxer's Association at Allentown, PA, Homer Smith was one of seven members honored in memoriam.

During WWII, Homer Smith worked in plant production for the Ford Motor Company at the Rouge plant for 2 years. In his later years he worked in a real estate office in Ypsilanti, Mi. In WWI, he was on active duty, trucking ammo and supplies to a French Artillery training camp that had been used as a military training camp since the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. One week before the Armistice of WWI, he was transferred to the First Army in France the day the Armistice was sighned. A few days later, he was transferred to U.S. Second Army Headquarters. He inspected and drove tractors and trucks for 6 weeks. Then he boarded the U.S. Cruiser Montana on February 23rd, he had his first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty when he landed at Hoboken, NJ. He then went on to Camp Custer on the boat and at Fort Custer he fought an exhibition boxing fight for the entertainment of the troops. It was a direct result of the popularity of the boxing fights at Camp Custer that the Michigan Boxing Commission was born. There is now a Smith Recreation Hall at Camp Custer.

Tommy Loughran vs. Leo Lomski

2008-07-05T15:49:19Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>19714</fight>

'''From the pen of John A. Bardelli:''' I'll share with you and the readers the following insights which have been garnered from a myriad of sectors, including my having conducted interviews with a host of fighters, managers, trainers, fans, and the like from that generation of fighters including conversations with and interviews with one who fought Leo Lomski three times himself. Additionally, I have my own reservoir of data collected through the years on fighters such as Leo Lomski and fighters of that era. I have much reason to garner as much data as I can concerning the life and career of Lomski.

In the first round of the Lomski-Loughran Championship fight, Lomski came out of his corner throwing caution to the wind having told Eddie Eicher, his manager, ''"Don't worry, Eddie, I'll flatten him."'' True to his word, Lomski connected with his vaunted right hand and dropped Loughran early in the round.

Mindful of the September 1927 Dempsey-Tunney long count, Lomski turned to beat a hastened retreat to a neutral corner so the referee would not delay his count. Ironically, as he did so, he collided with the referee causing him to delay the start of the count. Lomski and Eicher later contended that Loughran was on the canvas for well over ten seconds. Indeed, pictures were published in the press coverage of the fight revealing the collision which took place between Lomski and the referee while Loughran sits stunned on the seat of his pants, staring blankly at the canvas and, seemingly, unable to rise.

When Loughran was finally got up at the official count of nine, his legs were rubbery. Lomski went after him with a vengeance. Before the round was over, Lomski's right hand connected on Loughran's chin a second time dumping him backside for the second time. Loughran, on rising at the count of nine, was able to keep out of harm's way until the bell rang to end the round.

As the bell rang ending that first round, incredibly, Lomski walked to his corner hurt perhaps worse than Loughran, who had not landed any significant punch other than a few jabs to keep some distance between himself and the onslaught being thrown at him. Unknown to the screaming fans, some still standing, after seeing the sensational punching display put on by Leo Lomski, and unknown, also, to Tommy Loughran, as he sat recovering in his corner while shaking the cobwebs from his head, was the fact that Leo Lomski had broken his right hand during his two fisted first round onslaught. Lomski related that he felt his hand ''"crunch"'' when he dropped Loughran the second time in the round.

For the balance of the fight, Lomski had to fight with only his left hand and used his right hand only a smattering of times from the second through the fifteenth round. Loughran was roughed up on the inside when Lomski was able to land jarring body punches to the champions rib cage and midsection, broken hand or not. Ring Magazine, in covering the fight, wrote of the terrible body beating Loughran had suffered during the fight. Nevertheless, Lomski's right hand was nullified as a vital weapon and the ringside fans, boxing writers, and Loughran, himself, because they did not know of Lomski's tragic misfortune, thought it was simply a case of Loughran's ring generalship overcoming the westerner's slugging attack which had allowed Loughran to retain his title.

Despite Lomski's left hand body punches, Loughran was able to land enough of a series of his own left jabs and right crosses throughout the fight to convince the judges and the referee that he deserved to retain his title.

After the contest, Loughran said that Lomski was the ''"toughest man I have ever fought."'' To Lomski's chagrin, he and Eddie Eicher clamored for a rematch but Loughran refused to again risk his crown against the fists of the Aberdeen Assassin despite Ring Magazine entreat that Loughran give Lomski another title shot.

Though Lomski had been fighting for six years by the time he fought Loughran, his career was, in reality, just getting warmed up. He went on to fight Mike McTigue and won a ten round decision over the former light heavyweight champion. Pete Latzo lost two decisions to Lomski. Lomski and Maxie Rosenbloom fought 6 times, each winning two with two draws thrown in for good measure. However, after Rosenbloom won the light heavyweight title, he would never give Lomski a shot at his crown.

In 1929, Lomski was matched with the ''"Cinderella Man,"'' James J. Braddock. Braddock nearly dropped Lomski in their encounter, with his own right hand, in the first round. But Lomski withstood the shot and revealed enough to catch the eyes of referee Arthur Donovan and the judges. Lomski was awarded a unanimous decision. A return match between the two took place a year later in 1930. This time, Braddock did drop Lomski twice, once in the second round and again in the fifth round, but Lomski was nevertheless awarded ''"the eleven day decision"'' when it was determined that referee Dave Miller had made a mistake on his scorecard and a favorable Braddock decision was reversed.

Leo Lomski was never again given an opportunity to fight for the light heavyweight championship of the world after the Loughran fight.

In an interview before his death in 1975, Lomski related that he had broken his right hand 31 times in ring fights and he attributed the loss of his right hand as the main reason that he retired from the ring in 1936.

I have much more to write about Leo Lomski and will bring a compact biographical sketch to the table, as time allows, and make it available to all who may be interested.

Bert Tribbey

2008-06-04T05:07:39Z

JABARDELLI:

<boxer>087565</boxer>

Much of the early California record is courtesy of the research of Chuck Johnston.

In 1925, Bert Tribbey was managed by Chuck Snyder.

Young Firpo vs. Harry Dillon

2007-11-23T06:10:13Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96865</fight>

=== '''IDAHO MINER SMASHES WIN OVER CANUCK''' ===

By [[Don McCloud]]

His face smudged with coal dust, a strapping youth arose from the darkened depths of an Idaho mine five years ago, blinked a pair of astonishingly wide eyes at the unaccustomed daylight and struck out for the nearest gymnasium. He never ventured into the mines again.

Last night, this same youth made another ascension. But instead of rising to a mere street level, as he did five years ago, lifted himself to a high spot on the fistic horizon of the Pacific coast, if not the United States.

The husky fellow, who today is perched among the top notchers of the light heavyweight division, is Young Firpo, alias Guido Bardelli, Burke, Idaho's bid for pugilistic fame.

'''ENERGETIC FIGHT'''

Firpo slammed, ripped and bobbed his way to the coveted heights at the Auditorium last night when he won a slashing ten-round decision over Harry Dillon, who hails from the distant fields of Winnipeg.

Never since his first fight here, when he kayoed [[Ray Pelkey|Ray Pelky]], did Young Firpo appear to better advantage than he did against Dillon last night. His margin of victory was so wide that after the fifth round the Canadian's only hope for a win rested on a knockout punch, something that never materialized. Firpo was given every one of the ten rounds and the verdict of the judges and Referee [[Tom Louttit]] was a mere formality.

'''FIRPO RIDES HARRY'''

Propelling his arms in windmill style, the swarthy boy from the Gem state kept on top of Dillon throughout the entire bout, never once allowing him to get set for a solid punch and, meanwhile scoring with a volley of lefts and rights to Harry's face and body.

Twice Dillon dropped to the canvas, the victim of one of Firpo's wild overhand smashes. Coming out of a clinch in the opening of the third round, the Burke miner caught Dillon on the chin with a looping left and the Winnipeg walloper fell to the resin.

He bounced up without a count but only to run into another lethal smack. Again he dusted the board and this time remained down until a count of four had been tolled. Firpo tried his best to end the bout in this session, but Harry's marvelous courage and ring experience and Bardelli's wildness kept him from taking the long count.

'''ROUNDS REPEAT'''

Each round was but a repetition, with Firpo charging like a maddened bull, connecting frequently with hard smashes, and Dillon, his brow knitted in a puzzled frown, futilely seeking some way to stop the relentless and unorthodox charge. Firpo felt the canvas, himself, but each time being carried to the floor by the force of his wild charges across the ring. In the sixth, he tore into Dillon and the impact hurled both battlers over the ropes and into the unguarded laps of several cash customers. Firpo's weight was given at 174½ and Dillon's as 174½.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-09-14T23:29:03Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallops, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost went down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S''' ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as though the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Joe Waterman

2007-08-12T08:09:36Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Waterman.Joe.jpg|right|200px|Joe Waterman]]

== Brief Summary ==
'''Boxing Promoter, Manager, and Matchmaker on the West Coast of the United States'''

'''Born''': December 5, 1887 in Malden, MA 
'''Died''': May 5, 1949 in Tacoma, WA (heart attack)

'''Joe Waterman''' was nicknamed "Old Salt" by longtime ''Portland Oregonian'' Sports Editor [[L.H. Gregory]]. Gregory dubbed him this because he thought the "Old Salt" in Waterman's veins left him always on the move. Waterman was known to travel to Chicago and New York to watch fights while he was on the coast promoting. He was also a regular at other cards throughout the coast between his shows, and was a big fan of college sports and would hop on train on short notice to catch an event.

== Early Years in Denver and the Navy ==
After Waterman's father died when he was 12-years-old, he was sent to live with his brother Phil, who was eight years older, in Denver, Colorado. Phil was a traveling barber by trade, but on the side he was a boxer. It was through his brother Phil, that Joe began boxing. He had his first bout when he was 13 years old, weighing 112 pounds, earning eight silver dollars in a draw against a fighter named [[Jimmy Fisher]]. While boxing in Denver, Waterman used the name [[Joe Reilly]].

When Waterman was 18 he decided to join the Navy, and continued boxing, using the name "Joe Dailey" when he was on shore leave. After he suffered a severe injury to a knee ligament in a bout with [[Eddie McLarney]] (whose brother Art coached the University of Washington football and baseball teams) aboard the USS ''Paul Jones'', he was offered the choice of a medical discharge or the privilege of going to Navy School. Waterman chose to enter Navy School and graduated from a yeoman course.

== In the Philippines ==

During World War I, Waterman's unit was called upon to pick up a German boat that had been captured and taken to Manila harbor. On shore an officer recognized him, and asked him if he was the boxer from the USS ''Paul Jones''; Waterman told him yes, and he was named the matchmaker of the Knights of Columbus at Cavite, which was the Naval base in the Philippines.

Waterman did not have much success in his early days as a matchmaker, as he was frustrated by the continual unexpected transfers of many of the sailors that filled his cards. Frustrated by this, he began working with the native population who had not become interested in the local rooster fights. One day a young 115-pound Filipino, who worked at the Navy Cooper Shop with long hair named [[Dencio Cabanella]] came to Waterman's boxing classes.

Waterman would later tell the ''Tacoma News-Tribune'' in April 1949, that Cabanella was the most naturally gifted fighter he had ever saw, and "instinctively did things that would take other fighters years to learn, if ever." Waterman quickly discovered that the local sailors were no match for Cabanella, even with a 20 pound weight advantage, and he sent him off to Manila with [[Frank Churchill]] and the brothers; [[Eddie Tait]] and [[Stewart Tait]].

Cabanella quickly emerged as a national star in the Philippines as he continued to win regularly against fighters twenty pounds bigger than him, until he took a terrible beating in a bout in Australia and died.

== Arrival in the Northwest (1920s) ==
After World War I, Waterman left the Navy and returned to the United States, arriving in Tacoma, Washington. He brought over from the Philippines some of the earlies Filipino boxers, including; [[Frankie Haynie]], [[Cowboy Reyes]], [[Young Zuzu]], and [[Macario Flores]]. During the early 1920's, Waterman would promote (in Tacoma) and manage boxers. His most notable boxers were [[Doc Snell]] and [[Bud Ridley]]. By 1924 Waterman was the matchmaker for Tacoma's [[Kay Street Athletic Club]]. According to the April 25 ''Tacoma News Tribune'', he was to resign that position, effective May 1--because Tacoma rules prohibited a person from exercising matchmaker and manager duties simultaneously. His client Bud Ridley was returning to the ring, after being out for some time with a broken arm he had sustained while training.

In November 1925, Waterman was hired by the [[Portland Boxing Commission]] as matchmaker. Waterman was very successful, doubling the attendance and establishing boxing as a weekly event on Tuesday, during the normal October-April indoor boxing season. Some of the popular main event fighters developed in Portland by Waterman included, [[Boxer:Harry Dillon:075705|Harry Dillon]], [[Boxer:Chuck Hellman:050460|Chuck Hellman]], and [[Leo Lomski]]. Under Waterman's tutelage, Lomski would become Portland's most consistent gate attraction, until Waterman developed [[Boxer:Joe Kahut:010352|Joe Kahut]] in the 1940s.

Waterman left the matchmaker post in March 1927, shortly after he was married. He left for Los Angeles, and managed boxers there, including, [[Boxer:Sailor Willie Gordon:079229|Sailor Willie Gordon]], [[Boxer:Tony Portillo:048595|Tony Portillo]], as well as continuing with [[Doc Snell]].

In 1929, Waterman came to Seattle and began working with Seattle promoter [[Nate Druxman]], serving as Druxman's matchmaker. Druxman who had been promoting in Seattle for nearly 15 years, was experiencing growing success in spite of the Great Depression which hit in 1929, using fighters such as Snell, [[Leslie (Wildcat) Carter]], [[Dode Bercot]], and eventually a young up-and-coming [[Freddie Steele]].

== Second Stint in Portland (1931-34) ==
In November 1931, Waterman returned to Portland, this time as an independent promoter. Devoid of exciting main event talent, Waterman initially identified his main event stars as [[Abie Israel]] and [[Boxer:Johnny Hansen:098545|Johnny Hansen]]. However, Israel was grabbed by Nate Druxman, where he became a main event fighter in Seattle and lost a title bid with Featherweight champ [[Freddie Miller]]. Hansen was tragically murdered by fellow boxer [[Boxer:Jack Kentworth:096368|Jack Kentworth]] on March 1, 1932.

Waterman though, was able to find his main gate attraction though in the form of Chinese-American boxer [[Boxer:Ah Wing Lee:093398|Ah Wing Lee]], a native of Portland's St. John's neighborhood, who had boxed for Waterman and Druxman in Seattle as a prelim fighter, before stepping up in competition and getting stopped by [[Leslie (Wildcat) Carter]]. Waterman matched Lee, four times in 1932 with South Portland rival [[Boxer:Benny Pelz:009552|Benny Pelz]]. After three draws with Pelz, Lee finally beat Pelz on his fourth try. By this time, Lee was now drawing nearly 4,000 fans to his bouts and had become a hero in the local Chinatown.

As Lee's popularity continued to rise in the summer of 1933, Waterman matched him with a comebacking [[Doc Snell]], who was at the end of the career. In front of 7,280 fans at Multnomah Stadium, Lee finished Snell off in two rounds. Waterman then travled to Chicago, to try and lure Junior Welterweight Champion [[Tony Canzoneri]] to Portland to face Lee in a title fight. Canzoneri's team would not take the fight though, until they had seen him fight and offered up [[Boxer:Eddie Anderson:010098|Eddie Anderson]] as an opponent for Lee to prove himself. Anderson was then brought to Portland, where Lee stopped him in three rounds.

Canzoneri's team did not take the title fight however, discovering that Lee was a southpaw and also perhaps realizing that Lee had not quite acheived the notoriety needed for a title fight. Waterman shifted gears, and brought in California State Lightweight Champion [[Young Peter Jackson]]. In front of over 14,000 fans, Lee was stopped by Jackson in the 4th round. The attendance was a record for Portland, excluding a [[Boxer:Jack Dempsey:009009|Jack Dempsey]] exhibition. It may have not been surpassed, until [[Boxer:Roy Jones Jr.:001758|Roy Jones Jr.]] defeated [[Boxer:Clinton Woods:007831|Clinton Woods]] at the Rose Garden in 2002.

Lee was never quite the same after the loss to Jackson, though he did beat a faded [[Boxer:Billy Townsend:010137|Billy Townsend]], he was beaten by Billy Wallace, and for a final time by clubfighter [[Ernesto (Ernie) Cavalli|Ernie Cavelli]]. After Lee's loss to Cavelli, Waterman quit as a promoter in Portland. It should also be noted that Waterman, also had success in developing [[Young Firpo]] into a top main event attraction in Portland both before and after Lee's rise. Firpo's four fight series with [[Boxer:Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell:040392|Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell]], arguably the most exciting rivalry in Portland boxing annals, played a key role in making him an attraction. Waterman would actually manage Firpo during the summer and remainder of 1934, guiding him in his notable bouts with [[Tiger Jack Fox]] and [[John Henry Lewis]] in Portland.

== Working with Dave Miller's Stable ==

After he left Portland in March 1934, Waterman returned to Tacoma and bought a half interest in the stable of Tacoma manager [[Dave Miller]]. Miller whose business interests included a hotel and the concessions at the since closed Longacres racing track, was unable to leave the Northwest for an extended period of time with his stable of boxers, due to his business interests. Most important for Miller was that he needed someone he could trust, who could watch over his prized prospect, a rising [[Boxer:Freddie Steele:021553|Freddie Steele]].

Waterman would take Steele to San Francisco for a few bouts, however Steele injured his shoulder prior to a schedulded rematch with [[Boxer:Sammy (Kid) Slaughter:012402|Sammy Slaughter]] and left San Francisco without telling anyone. As a result Waterman, Miller, and Steele were both suspended by the California State Athletic Commmission. During this time, Waterman was also handling Miller's fighter [[Fred Lenhart]], as well as [[Young Firpo]], whom he guided in his first bout with [[Tiger Jack Fox]].

== Third Stint in Portland (1935) ==
In January 1935, Waterman went to Los Angeles and applied for the matchmaker job at the [[Olympic Auditorium]]. Apparently set to take the job, Waterman and the Olympic became hung up over the financial terms of Waterman's contract. After Waterman turned the Olympic job down, Portland promptly fired their matchmaker [[Tex Salkeld]]. (In time, however, Waterman would have at least three stints at the Olympic.) Waterman was quickly lured back to Portland where he put on his first show on February 12, 1935--using Freddie Steele in his first main event.

Portland was more or less devoid of quality main event talent at this time, and shortly after Waterman was unable to get Portland Middleweight [[Boxer:Paul Karch:126875|Paul Karch]] past [[Boxer:Baby Joe Gans:024675|Baby Joe Gans]], he again gave up his post in Portland and headed back to Los Angeles.

In September 1935, Waterman became the matchmaker at the [[Olympic Auditorium]].

== Los Angeles, the Olympic, & Other Spots in California (1935-42) ==

Largely because of the Great Depression, it had been very difficult to stage boxing shows in the Olympic Auditorium for a number of years before Joe Waterman took over as the matchmaker in
September 1935. In one of his first moves, Waterman slashed ticket prices so that the gate for a full house for a regular show was about $5,200.00, down from the middle 1920s figure of about $18,800. Moreover, the new general admission ticket price was twenty-five cents, in comparision to the middle-1920s price of $1.00.

In addition to slashing ticket prices, Waterman applied his matchmaking skills to developing new talent and to putting together good boxing cards. After toiling for small purses since he became a professional for a number of years, Henry Armstrong would get a big boost when he was headliner on a number of Waterman's cards.

By the end of 1936, it was obvious that Waterman had turned things around at the Olympic Auditorium. Since cards were staged weekly at the Auditorium on a regular basis, the attendance was over 400,000, reportly the largest for any boxing venue during the same year.

Waterman also was the matchmaker at the [[Ocean Park Arena]] during the late 1930s to early 1940s.

In early 1938, Waterman resigned his post at the Olympic after running into difficulties with [[Lou Daro]], an important figure behind the scenes. He would return soon after as the matchmaker, after [[Tom Gallery]] became the promoter at the Olympic.

On March 23, 1939, Waterman bought out the promotional interest of Oakland promoter [[Leo Leavitt]]. Waterman intended to promote in Oakland, which was struggling at the time. Longtime Oakland promoter [[Tommy Simpson]] had been struggling recently, and had retreated from active promoting.

Waterman would only put on one show in Oakland, which was a financial dud. Waterman claimed to have lost over $1000 on the promotion, and he quickly left Oakland. [[Tommy Simpson]] would return to his role as the dominant promoter in Oakland upon Waterman's departure. By August 1939, Waterman was reported to be in Portland, resting and waiting his next move. (Some sources say he remained the Olympic's matchmaker until 1942.)

== Fourth Stint in Portland (1942-46) ==

(Under construction)

== Return to Tacoma and Death (1949) ==

(Under construction)

== Miscellaneous Factoids ==
*Credited by one source, as the developer of the [[Australian Scoring System]]

== Sources ==
*''Portland Oregonian'' research conducted by Matt Tegen
*March 27, 1949 "Roar of the Crowd Long Has Been Music to Joe Waterman" ''Tacoma News-Tribune''

Waterman's [http://www.boxrec.com/prom_list.php?promoter_id=37 Promotion Record]

[[Category:Promoters|Waterman, Joe]]
[[Category:Matchmakers|Waterman, Joe]]
[[Category:Portland, Oregon Promoters|Waterman, Joe]]
[[Category:Tacoma Promoters|Waterman, Joe]]
[[Category:Seattle Promoters|Waterman, Joe]]
[[Category:Los Angeles Promoters|Waterman, Joe]]

Jack Johnson vs. Sam Langford

2007-06-20T05:39:32Z

JABARDELLI:

<Fight>19126</fight>

Shortly before Johnson's legendary reign as heavyweight champion, he met Sam Langford in Chelsea Massachusetts in defense of his "colored" portion of the heavyweight crown. Johnson, who had met the best heavyweight contenders (compared to Langford, who had recently battled lightweights and welterweights), dominated the bout and according to [[Dad Phillips]], who was in attendance for the bout, "purposely eased up on his onslaughts." Langford was also reportedly taken to the hospital after the bout was over. Langford's manager [[Joe Woodman]], however, vastly disagreed with Phillips, saying that Langford floored the "Galveston Giant" with a right-uppercut and gave him a tremendous battle. [[Nat Fleischer]], founder of [[The Ring Magazine]], interviewed Phillips's and Johnson's adherents (who also stated that Jack gave Langford a terrible beating) as a result of Woodman's false allegation, and when he learned the truth, returned to Woodman and finally got the truth out of him as well. There are still stories today stating that Langford gave Johnson a terrific battle and that Johnson would rematch because of the closeness of this match.

In 1945, Joe Waterman named Jack Johnson the greatest of all the heavyweight champions. In refuting those who claimed Langford won the Johnson-Langford encounter at Chelsea in 1906, Waterman stated that he was at the fight and witnessed Johnson dish out a "terrible beating" to the smaller Langford.

This was the only time Johnson ever met Langford in the ring in spite of many challenges by Langford and his promoters. Langford won 68 additional bouts, mostly by KO, in the interim until Johnson lost his title in Havana in 1915 against [[Jess Willard]].

George Parmentier

2007-06-13T07:29:25Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Parmentier.George.jpg|left|300px|photo]]
<boxer>012477</boxer>

George Parmentier was managed by Spike Carney.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-05-14T06:44:24Z

JABARDELLI: wallop to wallops

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallops, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S''' ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as though the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-05-14T06:43:27Z

JABARDELLI: thought to though

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallop, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S''' ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as though the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-05-14T06:41:49Z

JABARDELLI: wallop changed to wallops

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallops, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S''' ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as thought the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-04-22T03:18:24Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallop, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S''' ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as thought the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-03-24T05:57:18Z

JABARDELLI: /* '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' */

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forged in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallop, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Oregon State (Portland) Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S'''ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as thought the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

Fight:218638

2007-03-08T07:58:33Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>218638</fight>

=== '''WALLA WALLA SLUGGER KISSES CANVAS LESS THAN 50 SECONDS AFTER MAIN EVENT GO STARTED''' ===

''There were less than eight rounds of fighting on the Eagles' fight card at the auditorium last night, but there was more action packed in those eight stanzas than is often seen in eight whole cards.''

''Brotherton, the much touted battler from Walla Walla lasted less than a minute with the invincible Firpo. He went down and took the count of nine on one knee 29 seconds after the round started. He arose, started a right lead, missed and went to sleep flat on his face when Firpo took him on the right cheek with a snappy right hook.''

''The knockout punch was not exactly a right hook, either. It was a sort of cross between a right hook and a right jab, but it had all Firpo behind it. Brotherton took the count of 300. He was out just five minutes.''

''Here is the fight by rounds: They shook hands. They sparred. Firpo led with his left and Brotherton side-stepped it. Brotherton led a weak left. Firpo led with his left and followed with his right. Brotherton made him miss. They crashed into the ropes. On the break away Firpo landed a right to the head and Brotherton went to his knee. He took the count of nine. He came up and set himself for a right to Firpo's jaw. The right started but never landed. Firpo hit Brotherton on the right cheek bone with a short right cross between a jab, a chop and a punch. Brotherton took a long sleep.''

== Source ==
*Wallace (Idaho) Press Times

Fight:218638

2007-03-08T06:46:19Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>218638</fight>

=== '''WALLA WALLA SLUGGER KISSES CANVAS LESS THAN 50 SECONDS AFTER MAIN EVENT GO STARTED''' ===

[[From the Wallace Press Times]]

''There were less than eight rounds of fighting on the Eales' fight card at the auditorium last night, but there was more action packed in those eight stanzas than is often seen in eight whole cards.''

''Brotherton, the much touted battler from Walla Walla lasted less than a minute with the invincible Firpo. He went down and took the count of nine on one knee 29 seconds after the round started. He arose, started a right lead, missed and went to sleep flat on his face when Firpo took him on the right cheek with a snappy right hook.''

''The knockout punch was not exactly a right hook, either. It was a sort of cross between a right hook and a right jab, but it had all Firpo behind it. Brotherton took the count of 300. He was out just five minutes.''

''Here is the fight by rounds: They shook hands. They sparred. Firpo led with his left and Brotherton side-stepped it. Brotherton led a weak left. Firpo led with his left and followed with his right. Brotherton made him miss. They crashed into the ropes. On the break away Firpo landed a right to the head and Brotherton went to his knee. He took the count of nine. He came up and set himself for a right to Firpo's jaw. The right started but never landed. Firpo hit Brotherton on the right cheek bone with a short right cross between a jab, a chop and a punch. Brotherton took a long sleep.''

Fight:660806

2007-03-08T06:39:31Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>660806</fight>

=== '''WILD BULL LAYS LESTER WHITE IN RECORD TIME''' ===

[[From the Wallace Press Times]]

''Lester White, Spokane's "Fighting Marine," lasted about half a round with Young Firpo of Burke in one of the scheduled 10 round main events of the boxing card at Howarth Hall last night.

''A near capacity crowd of about 1000 fans witnessed the bouts. The big crowd was made impatient by unnecessary delays between contests, the management failing to get the boxers in the ring promptly or to provide gloves and laces until the fans nearly went crazy.''

''Young Firpo looked better than ever. In White he met a mean slugger who knocked him off balance twice. But the Wild Bull was up and hammering away, laying White twice for the count of nine before he sent to the cleaners. A hook to the side of the jaw put White on his back and the 'Fighting Marine' left the ring punch drunk after his handlers had worked over him for some time.''

Fight:660806

2007-03-08T06:18:30Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>660806</fight>

=== '''WILD BULL LAYS LESTER WHITE IN RECORD TIME''' ===

[[From the Wallace Press Times]]

Lester White, Spokane's "Fighting Marine," lasted about half a round with Young Firpo of Burke in one of the scheduled 10 round main events of the boxing card at Howarth Hall last night.

A near capacity crowd of about 1000 fans witnessed the bouts. The big crowd was made impatient by unnecessary delays between contests, the management failing to get the boxers in the ring promptly or to provide gloves and laces until the fans nearly went crazy.

Young Firpo looked better than ever. In White he met a mean slugger who knocked him off balance twice. But the Wild Bull was up and hammering away, laying White twice for the count of nine before he sent to the cleaners. A hook to the side of the jaw put White on his back and the 'Fighting Marine' left the ring punch drunk after his handlers had worked over him for some time.

Young Firpo

2007-03-04T08:20:59Z

JABARDELLI:

[[file:Firpo.Lenhart.jpg|left|Young Firpo (left) & Fred Lenhart]]
<boxer>009419</boxer>
'''Managers''': [[Chuck Snyder]] (early career), [[Bobby Evans]] (1930), [[Joe Waterman]] (1934-35), [[Mel Epstein]] (1935-37) 
 
Photo: Young Firpo (left) & Fred Lenhart

== Biography ==

Guido Bardelli was born in Barre, Vermont in 1907. When his father died in Vermont, his mother moved the Bardelli family to northern Idaho, ultimately settling in the mountainous mining town of Burke.

Guido bypassed a fling at amateur fighting and engaged in his first professional fight in Mullan, Idaho as a 17 year old against Ben Grenich, a seasoned ring campaigner. The fight lasted one punch from the right hand of teenage Guido. Grenich was knocked out and he was only able to leave the ring with the assistance of his cornermen after regaining his senses.

Nicknamed "Young Firpo" by an old time fighter and trainer, who had seen similarities in Guido to Luis Firpo of Argentina, Guido Bardelli soon became recognized as a knockout sensation unlike any fighter witnessed throughout the history of Pacific Northwest boxing.

A dozen or so fights and he had the Coeur d'Alene Mining District and the Pacific Northwest in his grasp for the combination of his physique, quicksilver feet, hand speed and dynamite punching power, captured the imagination of fight fans who realized that within their midst was the makings of a world champion.

He was called "Young Firpo" by the media and "Guido" or "Firp" by those closest to him. The media also tagged him with the sobriquet of "the Wild Bull of Burke."
[[file:Firpo.Young.Bardelli.jpg|frame|<center>Young Firpo</center>]]
Young Firpo's fighting style and vicious punching was described by sport's writers of the time, including the likes of L.H. Gregory, Don McCloud, Dan Walton, [[Billy Stepp]], and Reddy Gallagher, in terms that dramatically recognized that Young Firpo was unique in the annals of boxing history. For example, in a 1937 Portland Oregonian editorial, Gregory wrote ''"There's only one Young Firpo on earth. No other battler, anywhere, fights as he does. His is one of those peculiar styles a man has to be born with."''

[[L.H. Gregory]], the dean of Pacific Northwest boxing writers, in a 1971 ''Portland Oregonian'' editorial, recalled the exploits of Young Firpo when he described Firpo and wrote that he had ''"never seen more active fighting in the ring,"'' in more than fifty years as a sports writer, than the ''"sensational,"'' overwhelming force of Young Firpo. ''"Young Firpo was unforgettable,”'' he wrote.

His fight career commenced in 1924 and he retired from the ring in 1937. There were many great light heavyweights during that era and Young Firpo's record reveals that he took on all who were willing to enter the ring with him. As one's mind drifts to a bygone era, the names and visages of some of the opponents he faced ... Harry Dillon, Jimmy Darcy, Del Fontaine, Pete Cerkan, Frankie Wine, Dusty Miller, George Dixon, Tiger Thomas, Fred Lenhart, Leo Lomski, Wesley KO Ketchell, George Manley, KO White, Tiger Jack Fox, and John Henry Lewis ... eventually emerge from the shadows of the past and into the ring spotlight, again awaiting the clang of the bell to face the lethal and sensational punching capabilities of Young Firpo.

After capturing the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Title by dethroning Ketchell, and engaging in multiple defenses, the consensus was that it might be easier to win the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World than it was to dethrone the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Champion, at least while the title was being held by Young Firpo. Included among those who sought to dethrone Young Firpo, but who failed in the process, were George Manley, the railroader from Denver who perennially contended for the light heavyweight throne; Wesley KO Ketchell, the sensational southpaw knockout slugger who ruined many an aspirant's career; Tiger Jack Fox, a product of Indianapolis and one of boxing's all-time leading knockout artists; and John Henry Lewis, generally recognized as one of the top ten light heavyweights of all time.

Early in 1934, Young Firpo and Maxie Rosenbloom signed to fight for the light heavyweight championship, the match to take place in Portland during the Summer. As reported in a Butte, Montana, newspaper, the following captured the high regard Firpo was held by a legion of boxing writers:

''"Young Firpo, light heavyweight champion of the Pacific Coast, rated in the February issue of the boxing magazine as being the seventh greatest 170 pounder in the world, arrived in Butte from his home in Idaho yesterday to visit with his trainer, Mel Epstein. Firpo is signed to fight Maxie Rosenbloom for the title this summer at Multnomah Stadium in Portland, Ore. The bout is scheduled to go 15 rounds and will be the first title bout ever held in the coast city.

''Many sports writers of the Pacific Coast who have seen the Idaho miner in action give him an even chance to take Rosenbloom's crown. A terrific puncher with an unorthodox style of milling, Firpo has become the most sought-after fighter in the West.''

''The Wild Bull of Idaho holds two wins over Leo Lomski, stopped Wesley Ketchell, Roy Williams, and George Manley while he also defeated Tom Patrick, and George Dixon, besides a score of other first class fighters.''

''Firpo will remain in Butte for several weeks and will start light training here in a few days for pending bouts in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Chicago. Plans are afoot to have Firpo fight one of the world's best light heavies here this month."''''

Tragically, a disagreement over Firpo's percentage of the gate receipts lead to the cancellation of what would have been a classic match between the "terrific puncher" and a stylist --- the relentless slugging and blinding speed of Young Firpo against the defensive wizardry of title holder "Slapsy" Maxie Rosenbloom. Later in the year, in the spring of 1934, while enroute to Butte, Montana, to fight Gorilla Jones, Young Firpo was involved in a life threatening car wreck where he suffered serious injuries. At the time, the injuries, which hampered him for the balance of his career, were thought to signify the end of his ring career. He was hospitalized and following his release from the hospital, he sought to recuperate within the beloved and rugged mountains enveloping his home in Burke, Idaho. As he started to get his strength back by the late summer of 1934, the Portland Boxing establishment sought again to match Rosenbloom and Young Firpo.

The fight was to be a non-title affair although, Firpo's Pacific Coast title was to be on the line. Again, inexplicably, the fight fell through. Instead, the Portland establishment offered Firpo a "tune-up" fight with none other than Tiger Jack Fox, who had made a name for himself in the boxing world. Firpo ducked none and accepted the challenge and put his coast Light Heavyweight championship on the line against Fox who entered the fight as a heavy favorite due to Firpo's injuries and inactivity as well as the sensational punching display made on the coast by the Tiger, John Linwood Fox.

Firpo, however, rose to the challenge and in an epic August 28,1934, slugfest, which saw both fighters on the canvas in the 5th round, Firpo successfully defended his title against Fox who also has gone on to be generally recognized as one of the all time great Light Heavyweights in the history of boxing.

The Portland Oregonian described the fifth round in the following manner: ''"Firpo was the first to be knocked down. Firp has just crashed an awful left to Fox's face. The colored man suddenly retaliated with a savage rush in which his long arms swung like pistons, throwing fearful punches to Firpo's face and stomach. A right to the chin sent Firpo to his haunches near the ropes. Almost instantly, and before the referee could count, Firpo had bobbed up again - - - and the Bull came up fighting. As he rose his arms were flailing. A left and right smashed Tiger Jack on the chin, and in turn he sank to the floor. Fox also was up almost instantly but not until Referee Louttit had tolled a count of one over him. Fox at once rushed Firpo to the ropes. In a wild clinch there he bent the Burke miner's body backwards until it looked as though he would break him in two. Referee Louttit dashed in and pried them apart, then gave Fox a vigorous warning for rough battling. The sensational round was not yet over. Firpo charged Fox and belted him an awful left to the chin.''

''He bobbed to the floor in his famous crouch, shut up again swinging, and a right half knocked and half pushed Fox through the ropes and to his haunches. Referee Louttit evidently considered it a shove rather than a punch for he helped Fox to his feet and did not count. Just at the bell, Firpo uncorked a fierce right to Fox's belly.... On the score by rounds, Firpo took five, Fox three and two were even including the tenth."''

The Portland, Oregon, boxing establishment was excited in believing, seemingly, that Firpo had lost little of the greatness that he exhibited prior to his being injured in the car accident while traveling to Butte.

Another challenger to Firpo's Pacific Coast title emerged out of Phoenix, Arizona by way of San Francisco. This was the sensational teenage conqueror of the then Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, Maxie Rosenbloom, none other than John Henry Lewis. Lewis on his march to the World Light Heavyweight title and ultimate recognition as one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time, challenged Firpo and the Wild Bull heartily accepted Lewis's challenge for a shot at Firpo's Pacific Coast title.

On September 20, 1934, a youthful and vibrant John Henry Lewis stepped into the ring to swap leather with the great Italian slugger. The Portland Multonomah Stadium crowd witnessed a sensational fight that saw Lewis monopolize the early rounds only to witness Firpo turn the slugging match completely around with a barrage of sensational slugging which had Lewis virtually out on his feet in both the sixth and seventh rounds. A portion of the sixth round was captured by Billy Stepp who wrote: ''"Firpo's lefts and rights connected. One right almost tore Lewis' head off, and if ever a fighter folded, John Henry did, and like an old-fashioned canvas bag."''

The fight was called a draw by referee [[Tom Louttit]]. Steppe wrote: ''"The bell ended the 30-minute party and, of course, Referee Louttit's decision caused a near riot. It was O.K., but if a winner was to be picked yours truly has to give the silverware to the Bull of Burke * * *."'' The fans booed the decision for over 10 minutes. Lewis was fortunate to leave Portland for San Francisco still a viable contender for the world light heavyweight championship rather than having been carted or assisted to his dressing room as so many other of Firpo's opponents had including the likes of Ben Grenich, Mike Brotherton, Buck Ladeaux, KO White, Ray Pelky, Wesley Ketchell, George Manley, Leroy Brown, Nash Garrison, and a host of others.

Firpo challenged and sought for years to engage world light heavyweight champion Maxie Rosenbloom into a title fight but his efforts were in vain. Similarly, after Bob Olin won the championship Firpo challenged Olin to defend his title but this challenge, too, fell on deaf ears. After Olin had taken the title from Rosenbloom, Firpo wired a Spokane promoter: ''"Will fight Fox, Lewis, Rosenbloom or Olin. I fear no man."''

Ironically, after John Henry Lewis defeated Bob Olin in 1935 to take the light heavyweight crown, Firpo challenged Lewis who refused to risk losing his title to Young Firpo, perhaps having in mind their prior encounter when Lewis was given a shot at Firpo's own Pacific Coast light heavyweight title on September 20, 1934. The words written by Billy Steppe, following their Portland slugfest, had become prophetic: ''"Try and get 'em down for a rematch ... yes, just try and get Lewis to go into that ring again. Firpo would but try the other chap."'' Lewis' management wanted no part of risking the title and lucrative paydays in defending it against lesser lights. Young Firpo, on the downside of his career at the time, was still recognized as too dangerous to the Lewis entourage.

Throughout his entire ring career, with the exception of a brief interlude as a teenager while his career was starting and he was in the managerial hands of [[Chuck Snyder]], Young Firpo never had a fight manager. He trusted no one who called himself a manager. Irrespective, Mel Epstein became his trainer for a great many of his fights during the 1930s and it was Epstein who was in the ring with Young Firpo during many stirring epic battles including those he had with Leo Lomski, Tiger Jack Fox, Wesley KO Ketchell, and John Henry Lewis.

In a late November, 1971, gathering of boxing notables in Los Angeles, a Mel Epstein trained and managed fighter, Rick Farris, was invited by Suey Welch to attend a luncheon where approximately 18 boxing notables had gathered. Welch knew that Farris had a natural affinity for the history of boxing.

Mel Epstein had touted the seemingly unbelievable exploits and punching power of Young Firpo to an impressionable Rick Farris in striving to point out to Farris what Epstein had seen and been exposed to during his association with Young Firpo in terms of Firpo's strength, punching power, and endurance to the point that Farris began to challenge Epstein's credibility. Undoubtedly, Epstein, as a fight manager, was motivating and Farris was not buying into all of what was being offered to him.

Included at the Los Angeles luncheon were Jimmy McLarnin, Gorilla Jones, [[George Parnassus]], [[Suey Welch]], [[Mel Epstein]], Henry Armstrong, Ike Williams, Enrique Bolanos, Lou Nova, Mike Mazurki and others. Fighter-historian Rick Farris was absorbed and awe stricken as he listened to boxing story after boxing story emanate from the mouths and hearts of those in whose company he had been invited. Farris' ears were heightened when he heard the name ''"Young Firpo"'' mentioned by George Parnassus in a conversation with McLarnin and others.

At this point, seeking more than anything a desire to test the credibility of his own fight manager, Mel Epstein, Farris entered into the discussion by asking George Parnassus, ''"How good was this Young Firpo?"'' Before Parnassus could answer the question, Jimmy McLarnin responded to Farris' inquiry by stating,''"Oh, let me just tell you that Young Firpo was the greatest fighter I ever saw!"''

Then, without a break in the conversation, both McLarnin and Parnassus offered their opinions that ''"Young Firpo was the hardest hitting light heavyweight I have ever seen." '' To drive the point home further, Parnassus stated to Rick Farris, ''"You think that Bob Foster can hit hard? Young Firpo could hit harder than any of them, including Archie Moore and Bob Foster,"'' a point which was affirmed by Jimmy McLarnin whose career, incidentally, paralleled that of Young Firpo during the 1920s and 1930s. McLarnin, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, had seen Firpo fight on the Pacific Coast many times during Firpo's reign of terror.

Up until the date of his death, Mel Epstein lamented to all who would listen, the fact that, in Young Firpo, he had a world's champion in his grasp and, like water slipping through one's fingers, that championship eluded him as it had eluded Young Firpo. Epstein stated in a 1970s interview that ''"Before that damn car wreck, Firpo was unbeatable, he was practically unbeatable!" ''

Although Young Firpo never won the light heavyweight championship of the world, perhaps Billy Stepp summed up his fight career in a single sentence. Stepp wrote near the sunset of Firpo's career: ''"A world's champion was Young Firpo if ever there was one."'' But then, again, as his family and friends so well know, there was much more to Young Firpo than the world of boxing and any championship.

== Post Boxing Career Activities ==
*Firpo was briefly a referee for the Portland (OR) Boxing Commission in 1945[http://www.boxrec.com/official_search.php?official_id=6748]
*In the spring of 1950, it was reported in the ''Spokesman-Review'' that Firpo had begun promoting boxing shows in Wallace, Idaho. Firpo had headlined in the Northern Idaho mining town many times during his boxing career.
== Internal Link ==
*Annotated Fight Record: [http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=009419]

== Credit ==
The above was written by John A. Bardelli.

Fight:218638

2007-03-03T11:14:24Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>218638</fight>

Coverage of the fight in the Wallace Press Times stated: '''"Walla Walla Slugger Kisses Canvas Less Than 50 Seconds After Main Event Go Started.''' ''Brotherton, the much touted battler from Walla Walla lasted less than a minute with the invincible Firpo. He went down and took the count of nine on one knee 29 seconds after the round started. He arose, started a right lead, missed and went to sleep flat on his face when Firpo took him on the right cheek with a snappy right hook. The knockout punch was not exactly a right hook, either. It was a sort of cross between a right hook and a right jab, but it had all Firpo behind it. Brotherton took the count of 300. He was out just five minutes."''

Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)

2007-03-03T09:52:15Z

JABARDELLI: George Bertz fight coverage.

<fight>327162</fight>

== '''FIRPO POUNDS OUT WIN OVER KETCHELL''' ==

'''IDAHO MAULER TAKES DECISION IN FURIOUS FIGHT'''

'''Both Battlers Score Knockdowns in Red-Hot Main Event at Auditorium'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

When they talk in years to come about great fights and fighters they have seen, tell them how Guido Bardelli, otherwise, Young Firpo, “the bull from Burke,” won the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific coast from Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell at the Portland auditorium last night in ten gory, terrific rounds.

Tell them how the sawed-off thick-set Idaho miner bobbed, bounced and slugged his way to the title and how 3105 fans who were almost beside themselves with excitement, stood up and roared when Referee Louttit lifted his hand at the end of a wildly sensational tenth.

Tell ‘em how less than 20 seconds to go Firpo had stopped one of Ketchell’s terrific left-hand smashes on his chin, had dropped for eight, and then picked himself up to get the decision.

But tell them at the same the same time that this was only one of five knockdowns, and how Wesley Ketchell, dropped four times by Firpo’s swings, courageously fought through to the
finish, with enough left at the end to drop Firpo and almost turn the tables with that one punch.

Tell them also how the lion-hearted Ketchell hit the floor three times in a long-to-be remembered seventh round, each time for the full count of nine.

How impossible it looked for him to rise even after the first one, a smashing right to the chin that dropped him flat on his face, whence he rolled on his back.

Yet how he got up at nine and forge in, only to stop another, again for nine, and still a third time hit the floor, dead to the world in everything but lion-hearted courage, and once against staggered to his feet.

And then tell them how, in the very next round, the eighth, this same battered, hammered, swollen and bleeding, Ketchell, giving away the handicap of more than 12 pounds in weight, strode from his corner, began talking to Firpo, daring him to come in and slug, then stood toe to toe with him and traded wallop, as first one, then the other, not once, merely, but several times, hammered each other to the ropes.

It was the great fight of this year, and one of the greatest ever battled in a Portland ring.

Young Firpo deserved the decision. No question at all about that. He out-boxed Ketchell, out-knocked him down. It stood one no-count knock-down in the second, three nine-
counters in the seventh for Firpo, to the one eight-count knockdown of the tenth in Ketchell’s favor.

And also Firpo out-foxed Ketchell, out-maneuvered him, as well as out-punching him, by fighting the entire ten rounds from a baffling southpaw stance, although normally a right-hander.

It was that southpaw stance, as well as Firpo’s unconventional way of punching that really beat Ketchell. He never could solve Firpo’s left-handed style to get home his own deadly southpaw left.

But you never can take away from Wesley Ketchell the great, courageous, though losing, fight he made of it, and the bare breath by which he missed sending Firpo to the long count with that tenth-round smash.

Only three times in earlier rounds did Ketchell succeed in getting past the point of Firpo’s left shoulder and smacking in the left so that it noticeably hurt. And never once did he land it really solid until the tenth.

In the third, after being knocked down himself in the second, he really shook Firpo to his whiskers with a sudden short, explosive left. Firpo staggered, almost wen down, then came in more tigerishly than ever.

And in the eight, the round in which dared him, challenged him to fight, twice he knocked Firpo half through the ropes. But Firpo always came back. The “bull from Burke” was a real bull last night.

Firpo weighed 175 to Ketchell’s 162 3/4, a weight differential of 12 1/4 pounds.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

== '''FIRPO LICKS KETCHELL IN SIZZLING BOUT ==

'''By George Bertz''' Journal Sports Editor

'''YOUNG FIRPO'S'''ability to get up off the floor after being flattened for a count of nine by Wesley Ketchell in the last minute of battling Tuesday night virtually won him the right to wear the Pacific Coast light heavyweight title.

His wild unorthodox swinging against which no boxer can make a showing, of course, figured in Firpo gaining the championship in one of the greatest 10-round matches ever staged in The Auditorium.

It was crammed with thrills, the crowning one being Ketchell's nine count knockdown of the Idahoan in the last minute of battle. Like a flash, Ketchell caught Firpo on the point of the chin and the "Bull" dropped to the mat. After Firpo regained his feet, Ketchell tried in vain to score another knockdown and a possible victory. Firpo kept close to his opponent and the bout ended with the two battlers locked in a clinch.

Firpo won seven out of the 10 rounds, six of them by good margins, while Ketchell was winner in three rounds, including the last.

'''FIRPO MOVES IN'''

Ketchell adopted a watchful waiting policy at the outset of the contest. It appeared as though he was waiting to catch Firpo with a left cross as he came tearing in, but rare were the occasions that the Portlander was able to connect in view of Firpo's bewildering attack.

Strong as a bull, Firpo waded into Ketchell from the start and won the first four rounds. He put Ketchell to the mat for no count in the second round and landed a left that jarred Ketchell and had him against the ropes when the bell ended the second canto.

'''DOWN THREE TIMES'''

Ketchell jarred Firpo at the start of the third round but the Idahoan fought back strong and his ability to punch from all directions gave him a slight edge in that session. The fourth round found Firpo forcing the milling with Ketchell holding back and blocking some of the punches, but landing few in return.

Ketchell staggered Firpo twice in the fifth round, but even then Firpo came tearing in. Ketchell blocked well in the sixth, but was unable to ward off all the blows.

The seventh saw Ketchell on the floor three times for counts of nine from hard lefts. Ketchell took the count of nine three times and fell to the floor once after missing a punch. The last knockdown in the seventh round was the result of a series of lefts and rights that resulted in Ketchell going down in a heap in Firpo's corner.

Ketchell started out in the eighth like he meant business. He forced Firpo against the ropes with a series of lefts, but the Idahoan came back strongly only to run into another series of straight punches that caused him to back off.

Firpo started looping over his left in the ninth round and put in a couple of hard rights to the body. In the last, Firpo whipped over found right-hand punches without a return and had Ketchell up against the ropes. Backing into the center of the ring on the break, Ketchell shot out a quick left that floored Firpo. For a moment it looked as thought the "Bull" would not be able to rise but he regained his feet to stave off Ketchell's last moment drive. Ketchell weighed 162 pounds and Firpo 175 pounds.

The Ring Magazine - Miscellaneous Lists

2007-02-17T17:22:18Z

JABARDELLI:

As selected by ''The Ring'' magazine in various years.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The 10 Greatest Punchers of All-Time [[Ring_Magazine:_September_1997|September 1997 Issue]]</center>
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The 10 Dirtiest Fights of All-Time [[Ring_Magazine:_December_1997|December 1997 Issue]]</center>
|-valign="top"
|
# [[Joe Louis]]
# [[Stanley Ketchel]]
# [[Sam Langford]]
# [[Sugar Ray Robinson]]
# [[Jimmy Wilde]]
# [[Jack Dempsey]]
# [[Rocky Marciano]]
# [[Archie Moore]]
# [[Sandy Saddler]]
# [[Bob Foster]]
|
# Luis Resto ND10 Billy Collins, Jr, June 16, 1983
# Evander Holyfield DQ3 Mike Tyson, June 28, 1997
# Tony Galento KO14 Lou Nova, September 15, 1939
# Fritzie Zivic DQ2 Al "Bummy" Davis, Nov 15, 1940
# Ad Wolgast KO13 "Mexican" Joe Rivers, July 4, 1912
# Sandy Saddler KO9 Willie Pep, September 26, 1951
# Gene Tunney W15 Harry Greb, February 23, 1923
# Riddick Bowe DQ7 Andrew Golota, July 11, 1996
# Jack Johnson DQ9 Fireman Jim Flynn, June 4, 1912
# Joe Gans DQ42 Battling Nelson, September 3, 1906
|-valign="top"
|}

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The 20 Greatest Fighters of the 20th Century [[Ring_Magazine:_October_1999|October 1999 Issue]]</center>
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The Top 10 Fights of the 1990's [[Ring_Magazine:_February_2000|February 2000 Issue]]</center>
|-valign="top"
|
# [[Muhammad Ali]]
# [[Joe Louis]]
# [[Sugar Ray Robinson]]
# [[Henry Armstrong]]
# [[Jack Johnson]]
# [[Jack Dempsey]]
# [[Benny Leonard]]
# [[Harry Greb]]
# [[Rocky Marciano]]
# [[Archie Moore]]
# [[Roberto Duran]]
# [[Willie Pep]]
# [[Jimmy Wilde]]
# [[Pernell Whitaker]]
# [[Sugar Ray Leonard]]
# [[Stanley Ketchel]]
# [[Julio Cesar Chavez]]
# [[Terry McGovern]]
# [[Joe Gans]]
# [[Kid Gavilan]]
|
# Buster Douglas KO10 Mike Tyson, February 11, 1990
# Julio Cesar Chavez KO12 Meldrick Taylor, March 17, 1990
# Robert Quiroga W12 Akeem Anifowoshe, June 15, 1991
# Riddick Bowe W12 Evander Holyfield, November 13, 1992
# Michael Carbajal KO7 Humberto Gonzalez, March 13, 1993
# Nigel Benn KO10 Gerald McClellan, February 25, 1995
# Marco Antonio Barrera KO12 Kennedy McKinney, Feb 3, 1996
# Arturo Gatti KO6 Wilson Rodriguez, March 23, 1996
# Evander Holyfield KO11 Mike Tyson, November 9, 1996
# Ivan Robinson W10 Arturo Gatti, August 22, 1988
|-valign="top"
|}

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The 12 Most Exciting Rounds in Boxing History [[Ring_Magazine:_March_2001|March 2001 Issue]]</center>
!style="background:#efefef;" | <center>The 10 Greatest Title Reigns of All-Time [[Ring_Magazine:_April_2005|April 2005 Issue]]</center>
|-valign="top"
|
# Leonard-Mitchell II, January 14, 1921, Round 1
# Dempsey-Firpo, September 14, 1923, Round 1
# LaMotta-Dauthuille, Sept 13, 1950, Round 15
# Patterson-Johansson, March 13, 1961, Round 1
# Frazier-Quarry, June 23, 1969, Round 1
# Foreman-Lyle, January 24, 1976, Round 4
# Holmes-Norton, June 9, 1978, Round 15
# Saad Muhammad-Lopez II, July 13, 1980, Round 8
# Gomez-Pintor, December 3, 1982, Round 3
# Meza-Garza, November 3, 1984, Round 1
# Hagler-Hearns, April 15, 1985, Round 1
# Bowe-Holyfield, November 13, 1992, Round 10
|
# [[Joe Louis]]
# [[Bernard Hopkins]]
# [[Abe Attell]]
# [[Carlos Monzon]]
# [[Henry Armstrong]]
# [[Ricardo Lopez]]
# [[Marvin Hagler]]
# [[Eusebio Pedroza]]
# [[Larry Holmes]]
# [[Archie Moore]]
|-valign="top"
|}
== ==
Also see: [[The Ring Magazine]]

Young Firpo vs. George Manley (3rd meeting)

2007-02-06T08:39:41Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96007</fight>

'''THE MORNING OREGONIAN, APRIL 19, 1933'''

== '''MANLEY LOSES BOUT ON TECHNICAL KAYO''' ==

'''Firpo Drops Denver Fighter in First Round.'''

'''LOUTTIT STOPS FIGHT'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

Wild Bull of Burke Regains Disputed Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Title.

A thunderbolt, an Idaho mountain avalanche, a kick from the left foot of an army mule and the left glove of Young Firpo, nee Guido Bardelli, the bull from Burke, swinging in a long left hook, all landed simultaneously on the chin of George Manley of Denver in the first round of their return fight at the auditorium last night.

Young Firpo, by a knockout, in one round!

The lights went out for Denver, that's all, even though Manley tottered back on his feet at seven, only to be floored ferociously by Firpo again.

This second punch knocked Manley into the back corner, absolutely helpless, though once again he managed to get to his feet.

He was weaving and half paralyzed. He was out on his feet so completely that his eyes were
crossed. He stared from glassy eyeballs.

The referee again waved Firpo away. He looked at the helpless Manley, and at once walked over to Firpo and raised his hand.

“I stopped it when I did," said Louttit, "to prevent a fatality. Another punch probably would have killed Manley, he was so far gone."

It all happened so quickly that another packed house of excited customers was stunned. Not until several seconds did realization of Firpo's startling victory break through. Then they burst into wild cheers for their favorite.

Just two minutes --- that's all it took Firpo to win back the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific Coast that Manley had held for exactly two weeks.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
'''PORTLAND NEWS TELEGRAM, APRIL 19, 1933'''

'''THE SECOND GUESS By Billy Stepp'''

== '''NOW WHO IS THE REAL CHAMPION''' ==

NOW who's coast light heavyweight champion?

That left hook to the chin proved beyond all doubt that Young Firpo is everything the papers said about him.

When Firpo laid Manley away in slumberland in two minutes and seven seconds Tuesday night,he did something that few have done and will never will do . . . George Manley is a might good fighter, and if he would have walked the chalk line a few years ago, nothing could have stopped him from being a champion.

You could hear ugly rumors on the way to the exits the other night that Manley was drunk and had been drinking . . . that's silly. Dr. Scott gave the boys a double-O in the afternoon and a few minutes before the fighters came into the ring. The doc himself examined both fighters and their metal cups placing a special guard with each boxer until they shook hands and started swinging.

Manley wanted to beat Firpo . . . it wasn't a newspaper grudge battle . . . it was on the level . . . the hard feelings were in the raw.

The Denver boxer made the mistake of trying to slug with Firpo. Had he been contented to box and box, I for one doubt if Firpo would have copped him . . . sure it was a lucky punch . . . we agree on that, but it was a perfect punch and one that would have knocked out the best in the game . . . don't let em tell you that miner from the wind swept plains of Burke, Idaho, can't hit . . . he can, and how!

Young Firpo vs. George Manley (3rd meeting)

2007-02-06T08:28:54Z

JABARDELLI:

<fight>96007</fight>

'''THE MORNING OREGONIAN, APRIL 19, 1933'''

== '''MANLEY LOSES BOUT ON TECHNICAL KAYO''' ==

'''Firpo Drops Denver Fighter in First Round.'''

'''LOUTTIT STOPS FIGHT'''

'''By L. H. GREGORY'''

Wild Bull of Burke Regains Disputed Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Title.

A thunderbolt, an Idaho mountain avalanche, a kick from the left foot of an army mule and the left glove of Young Firpo, nee Guido Bardelli, the bull from Burke, swinging in a long left hook, all landed simultaneously on the chin of George Manley of Denver in the first round of their return fight at the auditorium last night.

Young Firpo, by a knockout, in one round!

The lights went out for Denver, that's all, even though Manley tottered back on his feet at seven, only to be floored ferociously by Firpo again.

This second punch knocked Manley into the back corner, absolutely helpless, though once again he managed to get to his feet.

He was weaving and half paralyzed. He was out on his feet so completely that his eyes were
crossed. He stared from glassy eyeballs.

The referee again waved Firpo away. He looked at the helpless Manley, and at once walked over to Firpo and raised his hand.

“I stopped it when I did," said Louttit, "to prevent a fatality. Another punch probably would have killed Manley, he was so far gone."

It all happened so quickly that another packed house of excited customers was stunned. Not until several seconds did realization of Firpo's startling victory break through. Then they burst into wild cheers for their favorite.

Just two minutes --- that's all it took Firpo to win back the light heavyweight championship of the Pacific Coast that Manley had held for exactly two weeks.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PORTLAND NEWS TELEGRAM
APRIL 19, 1933

The Second Guess by Billy Stepp

Now Who Is The Real Champion

NOW who's coast light heavyweight champion?

That left hook to the chin proved beyond all doubt that Young Firpo is everything the papers said about him.

When Firpo laid Manley away in slumberland in two minutes and seven seconds Tuesday night,he did something that few have done and will never will do . . . George Manley is a might good fighter, and if he would have walked the chalk line a few years ago, nothing could have stopped him from being a champion.

You could hear ugly rumors on the way to the exits the other night that Manley was drunk and had been drinking . . . that's silly. Dr. Scott gave the boys a double-O in the afternoon and a few minutes before the fighters came into the ring. The doc himself examined both fighters and their metal cups placing a special guard with each boxer until they shook hands and started swinging.

Manley wanted to beat Firpo . . . it wasn't a newspaper grudge battle . . . it was on the level . . . the hard feelings were in the raw.

The Denver boxer made the mistake of trying to slug with Firpo. Had he been contented to box and box, I for one doubt if Firpo would have copped him . . . sure it was a lucky punch . . . we agree on that, but it was a perfect punch and one that would have knocked out the best in the game . . . don't let em tell you that miner from the wind swept plains of Burke, Idaho, can't hit . . . he can, and how!