Dempsey and the Wild Bull

The Four Minute Fight of the Century

John Jarrett

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785310850
• Year: 2015

They still call it the most sensational fight ever for the world heavyweight championship, between champion Jack Dempsey and his hammer-fisted Argentine challenger, Luis Angel Firpo. Back in the Roaring Twenties, 85,000 packed into New York's Polo Grounds to see all three minutes 57 seconds of it. Nobody asked for their money back. In the first round Firpo was floored seven times, but got up to deck the champion, then knocked him clean into the press section. Pushed back into the ring as the count reached nine, the champion survived the round, thinking he had been knocked out. In round two, Dempsey knocked Firpo out in 57 seconds. The four-minute Fight of the Century was over! "The Wild Bull of the Pampas" became Argentina's most famous citizen, after the infamous Perons. Dempsey, half a million dollars richer, rested and rusted for three years before losing his title to Gene Tunney.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1) Day Of The Fight
• 2) The Journey Begins
• 3) Runyon’s Wild Bull Of The Pampas
• 4) Tex Finds Another Jeffries
• 5) Main Event At The Garden
• 6) Firpo The Giant-Killer
• 7) Wanna Be Champ, Luis? Fight Dempsey!
• 8) Hail The New Champ! Boo!
• 9) Miske – Capone – Brennan
• 10) Carpentier ‘The Wonder Man’
• 11) The Million-Dollar Gate
• 12) Wrestlers And Showgirls
• 13) Rickard In Court – Dempsey In Europe
• 14) Lean Times For Million-Dollar Fighter
• 15) Tough Times Out West
• 16) Gibbons Goes All The Way
• 17) Doc Knocks Out Shelby
• 18) Dempsey’s Here, Where The Hell Is Firpo?
• 19) Training Camps
• 20) Firpo Trains On The Cheap – Dempsey KOs A Reporter
• 21) Who Do You Like, Dempsey Or Firpo?
• 22) The Battle Of The Century
• 23) All Over Bar The Shouting
• Bibliography
• Index
• Photographs