In the shortest and wildest brawl ever fought between heavyweights, Jack Dempsey knocked out Luis Firpo at the Polo Grounds #OnThisDay in 1923. But no champion ever had a closer call. In a chaotic first round, after Firpo had gone down an incredible seven times, one of his looping thumping rights caught Dempsey cleanly and knocked him clear through the ropes. The champion's head disappeared over the edge of the ring, his white-clad legs shot up in the air, and it seemed a new world champion was about to enter into his glory. On referee Jack Gallagher's count of nine, Dempsey managed to stagger back into the ring, but the end of the round found him obviously badly shaken, and staggering as he had never been staggered before. In the interval Dempsey was still so dazed that his manager, Jack Kearns, waved smelling salts under the 28-year-old champion's nose to help bring him round. In the second round Firpo was too slow to reach Dempsey, who was striking in with all his power. He caught Firpo with a right and put him down. Two seconds later the challenger was up but a moment more and he was down again for a count of five. Once more Firpo staggered to his feet, Dempsey was on him instantly, caught him with a left to the jaw and then toppled him with a right as he sank. Bleeding slightly at the mouth, Firpo turned slowly over, striving vainly to rise as the referee's pumping arm reached the counts of eight and nine, and stiffened helplessly as the tenth count ended his championship hopes for the time. "He is game and the hardest puncher I ever faced. It was the first time I was knocked down since I became champion and I'll never forget it,” said Dempsey. "I saw eight million stars when I got that punch on the chin that knocked me out of the ring. ... I didn't even know he had knocked me out of the ring until I came to on my stool between rounds. I thought I had been knocked out.” It was three minutes 57 seconds of mayhem, carried out before an official capacity crowd of 80,000. The fight was later immortalised in the famous George Bellows painting. #boxing #BoxingNews #BoxingHistory #JackDempsey #DempseyFirpo (at Polo Grounds) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnt6HoZhdBb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1d3ssnvvzhday