The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-04
Luis Fiirpo, "Man of Destiny"
 Says He Will Depend On His
 Hands And Not Fate 70 Win
(BY LUIS ANGELO FJRPo AS TOLD
 TO WILLIAM SLANENS M,NLTTA


 Copyright 192S in United States and Canada by North American Newspaper Alliance for The Age -Herald Copyright
 South America by La Nacion All rights
 reserved)
 ATLANTIC CITY, Sept. 3.-some of my friends have told me that l am what they called man of destiny. They have slapped me on the back and said that I am sure to win the championship of the world because fate means me to win. l do not know much about fate. l hope fate means me to win, but in the mean time l will take good care of my health and keep learning to block better and dodge faster and hit harder. 1 am not so sure that fate is friendly to me but l do know that my two fists are to be trusted. So while l prepare to fight Dempsey think more about my fists than l do about fate. However, if 1 were to allow myself to be superstitious there are some funny things that might make me think I am the man me to be. If 1 were superstltious 1 might think 1t strange that l am tt fight Dempsey on September IA. Perhaps it is a coincidence that that day should have been chosen from among the 365 of the year for me to make the supreme effort to win the championship of the world. As have said, I am not superstitious, so l laugh and think only that the choice tf the date is an accident. To Fight On Anniversary.
 But anyone l think will agree with me that 1t is at least funny that fought my first fight for money on the night of September 14, five years ago in Gillian, Chile. Those who are superstitious might think it odd, too, that the man l fought that night was an American, William Daley. Then did net know at all how to fight. 1 knew only how to swing my fists, first one and then the other. Eight cen times l knocked Daley down and then in the seventh round l knocked him out. For myself for that fight, when everything was paid and all taxes deducted, I got 140 Chilean pesos A peso, l think, is worth about 10 cents, American money. I bought suit with the money l got from that fight. l needed that suit. I had travelled 2,S00 miles to get to that fight, and crossed the Andes on foot en route. I can tell you that when I got there my clothes did not make me look like rich man. People who are superstitious might think 1t funny, toe, when I say that on the day of that, my first pro- fessional fight, l first heard about the American fighter, Jack Demp- sey. On the afternoon of that day I was talking with some of the other boxers there and they were speaking about Jack Dempsey. l asked them who he was and they showed me a clipping from a paper telling about the way he knocked cut Fred Full ton SC quick.
 Heard Of Dempsey Five Years Ago.
 I suppose that many people who are superstitious would make much of it that just exactly five years to the day from the time I first heard the name, Jack Dempsey, and fought my first professional fight, and whipped the first man from North America that I met. I am now to fight the heavyweight titleholder foI the championship of all the world.
 But l am not superstitiols No, maybe it Is fate that has brought me from that little town in Chile, where I fought my first fight and was paid barely enough to buy a suit of clothes to wear.
 I am to fight in New York for the cha mpionship of the world, enough money to buy clothes for many mil lionaires for many years. But, I can iol see late anu cdn see my 1lStS. cannot hit Jack Dempsey with fate, but l can hit him with my fists. l do not know whether fate will be with me when l enter the ring on Sep tember IA, but I am sure that my fists will be at the ends of my arms as usual. So, while other people think I am man of destiny with fate to be my guide, 1 will think that I am a prize fighter with two fists for clearing the path to where wish to go. They have done well by me so far, these two fists. I will trust in them the rest of the way.