This is the first lithograph of two depicting the most dramatic moment of the September
1923 bout in New York between Jack Dempsey (the "Manassa Mauler") and the Argentinean
Luis Firpo (the "Bull of the Pampas").
Although Firpo was knocked down seven times in the first round of the fight, he managed
a punch that sent Dempsey flying through the ropes, as Bellows showed in this
lithograph. (Bellows himself looks on in the lower left-hand corner of the lithograph.)
Dempsey landed in the press box and was boosted back into the ring by members of the
press corps. He went on to defeat Firpo in the next round.
Buy the catalogue An American Pulse: The
Lithographs of George Wesley Bellows.
