The wait for justice can be a long proposition. For many people, the long-awaited day of reckoning and vindication never comes. For some, occasionally, it does.

That day has finally arrived for “The Wild Bull of the Pampas.”

With the announcement of the induction of Argentina’s Luis Angel Firpo into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota as part of the Class of 2024 in the “Old Timers” category, a century of waiting is over for his compatriots, for his family, and for boxing history as well.

“In our hearts, the wait never ended,” said an emotional Maria de Lourdes ‘Chiche’ Perez Barbieri, great niece of Firpo and one of the custodians of his legacy, upon learning the news. “This is something that fills me with an enormous pride. That fight in 1923 in New York is branded with fire on the hearts of every Argentine and every boxing fan, and now we can say that time has done justice to that victory! It is an acknowledgement to his physical and mental strength, and to his humility too”.

Boxing remembers Firpo as one of history’s most famous losers, yes.

Firpo vs. Dempsey was immortalized by artist George Bellows. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

His biggest claim to fame was, of course, his legendary and furious battle for the heavyweight championship of the world against Jack Dempsey on September 14, 1923 at New York’s Polo Grounds. In what became one of the most iconic moments in boxing history, Firpo famously sent the fearsome Dempsey out of the ring through the ropes, in a scene that was captured by the public imagination in dozens of ways. It inspired everything from a painting by George Bellows that many people still consider one of the most important American works of art to a scene in The Simpsons.

The number of people who claimed to have helped Dempsey back into the ring on that fateful night would fill several pages, and the number of times that “the” typewriter in which Dempsey landed after falling from the ring was sold to unsuspecting collectors and speculators remains one of the biggest scams in sports memorabilia history, ever.

But that does not change the result of the fight, which lasted less than one hundred seconds in total.

In those furious two rounds, Dempsey sent Firpo to the canvas a total of nine times while he visited the canvas twice himself, in one of the wildest clashes ever seen on a boxing ring. With the rules of modern boxing still being drawn and revised by the day, there were many instances in which the fight could have been called for either fighter, but the most controversial one was Dempsey’s sudden exit from the ring and his subsequent return to it.

Dempsey did stay outside the confines of the ring for more than 10 seconds, but there was a rule somewhere indicating that any fighter who fell out of the ring had 20 seconds to return to it as long as he did it without any assistance whatsoever. And Dempsey can be seen being pushed back into the ring by at least two people: Jack Lawrence (boxing writer and owner of the most famous typewriter in sports history) and Perry Grogan, telegraphist for Western Union. This action should have been enough to disqualify Dempsey under any other circumstance, and the action itself became the center of a controversy that still rages on today.

Moreover, it was later learned that Firpo fought with a serious injury in his left arm. The speculations of what could have happened if Firpo had fought Dempsey with two good hands only enhanced the aura of the “moral victor” of the fight that Firpo and his followers quickly embraced – and which follows his name even today.

If there is someone who defined the words “boxing” and “fame” in the early 20^th century, that’s Firpo. At least in his native Argentina, where he remains an icon whose legend defies the passing of time.

In his country, he became not only just an instant celebrity. He became the very first fighter to own a professional license, numbered 001, upon returning home to a hero’s welcome. And from then on, his fame took off. A number of products were either named after him or sponsored by him, including one of the country’s first sports periodicals called “Firpo Sports.” He owned several businesses including car dealerships and others, and by the time of his death he owned thousands of some of the most fertile acres of land in the world.

From having his own sports magazine in 1923 to leading a book in 2023, Firpo has etched his name in Argentine boxing history

As his legend grew, his other accomplishments in the ring were almost forgotten or diminished by his legendary bout with Dempsey.

Firpo finished his career with a respectable 31-4 record with 26 knockouts, having defeated the likes of Harry Wills (a man Dempsey famously avoided, and not only because of his race), Bill Brennan and other contenders of his era.

And he famously earned his chance to face Dempsey when he stopped former heavyweight champ Jess Willard in eight rounds at Boyle’s Thirty Acres only two months before taking on Dempsey, and racking up three “tune-up” bouts in those sixty days, probably injuring his left arm during those bouts. His fight against Willard remains, until today, one of the biggest live gates for a non-title bout ever.

But no other exploit or heroic act would ever surpass that fateful night in September of ’23, with dozens of celebrities at ringside and millions listening on their radios worldwide in one of the first live broadcasts ever for a title fight. The noise of that night, the explosion of misguided joy in his compatriots as they heard Dempsey was flying out of the ring, the roar of deception and frustration upon learning of the official result, and the ensuing controversy yelled out in hundreds of conversations on the subject during an entire century are his biggest legacy, and they cement his place Firpo’s place in history in a way that only a plaque in Canastota could properly illustrate.

That plaque will be placed there in June of 2024.

For Firpo and for Argentina, those 100 seconds echoed in history.

And now, 100 years later, they reverberate in a final joyful noise of justice.

Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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