Firpo

In 1923, Argentine boxer Luis Ángel Firpo faced heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in what many hailed as the fight of the century (little did they know greater spectacles were still to come). All of Latin America rallied behind the powerful Argentine, who even managed to knock Dempsey out of the ring in the first round. Yet, in a controversial decision, Firpo ultimately lost the match. 

Just months earlier, in the small Salvadoran town of Usulután, a football club named Tecún Umán had been founded. Inspired by Firpo’s epic bout, its members voted overwhelmingly to rename the team Club Deportivo Luis Ángel Firpo. Along with the new name came new identity: the club adopted the red, white, and blue colors of Firpo’s beloved Argentine side, San Lorenzo de Almagro, and chose as its emblem a bull, honoring the boxer’s nickname—El Toro de las Pampas (The Bull of the Pampas). 

During the 1980s and 1990s, Firpo became one of the most successful teams in El Salvador’s top division, where it still competes today, proudly carrying forward the fighting spirit of the legendary Argentine whose name it bears.