klompton wrote: ↑28 Mar 2012, 18:12
Well, for a better reason why Tunney isnt more greatly appreciated:
He never faced a black fighter and there were some pretty interesting matches that could have been made along those lines: Flowers, Norfolk, Anderson, Ethridge, Siki, Wills (and please, dont pull that "he tried to fight Wills crap")
For years he was very carefully matched.
His best wins come over faded fighters: Greb who was a MW, blind in one eye, and had the ringwear of 200+ fights and who Tunney still needed a four tries to beat convincingly and registered at least one fixed decision against, Levinsky who was completely through as a top fighter, Gibbons who was ancient and who Tunney admits he ducked for years, Carpentier who was way past his prime, and always overrated, Dempsey who hadnt fought in three years, etc. etc.
Because when its all said in done Tunney had backing him the most powerful New York manager, most of the New York commission members, and several of the most powerful politicians in the state AND at least one powerful racketeer all of which helped him move along into a lucrative and important matches that he would not have otherwise gotten based on some of the tedious performances and careful matchmaking he had benefitted from.
Now, all of this isnt to say Tunney is bad or overrated. In fact I think hes underrated and was probably just entering his prime when he retired. But the above are what hurt him in many peoples rankings.
The judges are the judges and they say Tunney only lost one fight to Greb in the five. Greb fought dirty in the first match and Tunney's corner man complained about it. That is a fact.
You can pick your papers and I suppose others can too, but without video proof it is hard to call them robberies.
Tunney offered through his manamagemt to fight Wills, did he not? Wills was the best black heavy of the time. Norfolk was the 2nd best if the names you mentioned did not fight. Was the demand for such a match? I never read there was.
iN 1926 ,Before he became champ Gene Tunney had started filming in Hollywood a ten part serial called
THE FIGHTING MARINE, this was then edited down to a feature film and shown at matinees.
it is still lost (although I probably think Tom Mix may have had a copy).
Interesting enuff, Harry Wills and Gene Tunney were scheduled to fight in late 1925,
and the winner to get a chance at Jack Dempsey's title sometime in 1926.
Gene Tunney and his manager showed up at the press conference in New York City to sign the contracts
but Harry Wills and his manager did not show up.
( each was going to get 200,000 dollars)
klompton wrote: ↑28 Mar 2012, 18:12
Well, for a better reason why Tunney isnt more greatly appreciated:
He never faced a black fighter and there were some pretty interesting matches that could have been made along those lines: Flowers, Norfolk, Anderson, Ethridge, Siki, Wills (and please, dont pull that "he tried to fight Wills crap")
For years he was very carefully matched.
His best wins come over faded fighters: Greb who was a MW, blind in one eye, and had the ringwear of 200+ fights and who Tunney still needed a four tries to beat convincingly and registered at least one fixed decision against, Levinsky who was completely through as a top fighter, Gibbons who was ancient and who Tunney admits he ducked for years, Carpentier who was way past his prime, and always overrated, Dempsey who hadnt fought in three years, etc. etc.
Because when its all said in done Tunney had backing him the most powerful New York manager, most of the New York commission members, and several of the most powerful politicians in the state AND at least one powerful racketeer all of which helped him move along into a lucrative and important matches that he would not have otherwise gotten based on some of the tedious performances and careful matchmaking he had benefitted from.
Now, all of this isnt to say Tunney is bad or overrated. In fact I think hes underrated and was probably just entering his prime when he retired. But the above are what hurt him in many peoples rankings.
The judges are the judges and they say Tunney only lost one fight to Greb in the five. Greb fought dirty in the first match and Tunney's corner man complained about it. That is a fact.
You can pick your papers and I suppose others can too, but without video proof it is hard to call them robberies.
Tunney offered through his manamagemt to fight Wills, did he not? Wills was the best black heavy of the time. Norfolk was the 2nd best if the names you mentioned did not fight. Was the demand for such a match? I never read there was.
- Dempsey in Hollywood was ready for his comeback after falling out with the cheating Kearns, so Rickard wanted a tourney where one of the matches was Tunney vs Wills. Tunney accepted, but Wills as the #1 contender figured he'd done enough to fight Jack after they signed to fight when Jack was still active, first in Boston 1922, then the new 1923 Yankee Stadium, but both times the City Fathers nixed the fight fearing rioting aka JJohnson vs Jeffries.
Wills fought Sharkey instead who beat him by Wills' DQed backhand that sounds a bit harsh, but of course boxing one of the shyte governed sports through out history. Wills was clearly done after this, but much later when Schmeling KOed Louis, Riots broke out. My uncle had a newspaper Bicycle early night route in Black Austin. He was 9 or so years old when a black gang accosted him ready to beat the tar out of him, but they saw they had a scared little boy only servicing the neighborhood with newspapers and let him go...c'est la vie...
