Gene's first pro-fight took place on Jul 3, 1915 at the age of 18 y.o. It was a KO win over Bobby Dawson. Then Tunney was having a regular for rising boxers campaign against journeymen. On May 2, 1918 he was enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and sent to France. There he was considered to have a lot of fights, although only 9 of them were documented and are listed now in his record. During the service Tunney won Bob Martin, the heavyweight champion of the American Expeditionary Forces, and defeated 20 opponents in an elimination series to win the American Expeditionary Forces light heavyweight title.
Here's the extract of the fight against Ted Jamieson on the Apr 26, 1919 for the American Expeditionary Forces light heavyweight title
From the late 1919 Tunney was back home and continued his career in the USA. Tunney's level of opposition was increasing. On Jan 13, 1922 Gene outpointed Battling Levinsky for the American Light Heavyweight Championship, which was considered a major title in those times. And on May 23, 1922 that title was on the line against Harry Greb. In that fight Tunney was said to box well for 10 rounds, while Greb was the aggressor through the fight and managed to take clearly the last 5 rounds. Greb was said to fight harsh and dirty, Tunney was cut early and his nose was broken from a head-butt right in the 1nd round. Greb was awarded the unanimous decision. That was the first loss of Tunney and it remained the only. The rivalry against Greb was set.
On Aug 24, 1922 Gene faced Tommy Loughran. It was a close fight with the eventual no-decision, as The Philadelphia Inquirer scored for Loughran, while the Philadelphia Record and Philadelphia Public Ledger gave it to Tunney. On 23 Feb, 1923 Gene faced Greb in the rematch for the American Light Heavyweight Championship. The fight was close again, but this time Tunney provided more attacks to the body in order to slow down aggressive Greb. The result was a split decision for Tunney, it was probably even more controversial, than the first one for Greb.
The rubber-match against Greb took place on Dec 10, 1923. This time Tunney won absolutely convincingly. Gene was working to the Harry's body again, Gene was landing harder and cleaner shots through the fight. Thus Tunney defended the American Light Heavyweight Championship. The Greb rivalry wasn't over though.
On 24 Jul, 1924 Tunney fought the former Light Heavyweight Champion of the World Georges Carpentier. Gene dominated him and the bout was stopped in the 15th.
Among few next fights Tunney faced Greb twice more. On Sep 17, 1924 Tunney and Greb had no-decision. The fight itself was probably very close, as many different observers were scoring the fight in a pretty different ways, although decisions among the editions were majorly Greb-sided, while it was considered, that a lot of ringsiders were giving the fight for Tunney.
Before the 5th Greb fight Tunney faced Jeff Smith on Dec 8, 1924, when Gene clearly dominated and was awarded the newspaper decision. Then he finally had the 5th Greb fight. On Mar 27, 1925 Tunney outclassed Greb, scored the newspaper decision win and thus put a big exclamation mark in his rivalry with legendary Harry Greb.
Next he fought Tommy Gibbons on 5 Jun, 1925 and knocked him out in the 12th sending him to the retirement.
And on 18 Nov, 1925 he took the clear newspaper decision against Johnny Risko. Now Tunney was at the closest to the Heavyweight Title shot. In 1925 Gene gained an appropriate weight for that, while Carpentier and Gibbons faced him shortly after their attempts of conquering the Heavyweight crown from Jack Dempsey. So Tunney finally broke through the rankings. In those times only African-American Harry Wills was another clear contender, but interracial bouts weren't, so to speak, popular in the beginning of the 20th century, so neither Dempsey, nor Tunney was interested in that, thus they were free to face each other.
On 23 Sep, 1926 Gene Tunney faced the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World Jack Dempsey. While being a clear underdog Gene was able to outclass Dempsey giving him no chances to take the decision.
After that big upset the rematch took place on 22 Sep, 1927. Overall the fight had the same scenario, Dempsey just was able to catch Tunney in the 7th, after what there was the famous "Long Count", which most likely had no affect on Tunney's recovering process, as Gene regained consciousness fast and was looking at the ref counting until the final seconds. And in the 8th Tunney returned Dempsey a favor of a knockdown, although Dempsey wasn't much hurt with that punch and got up immediately.
On 26 Jul, 1928 Tunney defended his crown against Tom Heeney knocking him out in the 11th. Afterwards Gene stated, that no clear challengers left, and he announced the retirement from boxing while being the Reigning Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Gene Tunney was a truly exceptional boxer with an impressive rational style and highly advanced technique. His high skillset was a breakthrough in boxing for that period of time and is even comparable with the modern one. Tunney was an intelligent boxer with an excellent footwork, great jab and an ability to connect variable combinations.
Gene was inducted into the The Ring magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1955, into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 as well as into the United States Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
