Young Firpo vs. Wesley (Kayo) Ketchell (3rd meeting)
Young Firpo 175 lbs beat Wesley Ketchell 163 lbs by PTS in round 10 of 10
- Date: 1933-01-24
- Location: Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, USA
- Referee: Tom Louttit
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 four 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.