Fight:327159

Young Firpo 173 lbs drew with Young George Dixon 163 lbs by PTS in round 10 of 10

• Date: 1931-05-12
• Location: Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, USA
• Referee: Kewpie Riley

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.

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