Gene Tunney, is he overated by some?

You're right, he's overrated as a heavyweight.
I've probably overrated him myself in the past.

Irrelevant.

I've never been to Caucasia. How is it there ?

 

If anything, Gene is underrated by most fight fans. Let's get off the tired old race nonsense. Are some black heavyweights of today going to be dismissed by future fans because they allegedly avoided Eastern European boxers? Sheesh!!! Tunney had it all, a truly great pugilist.

 

Overrated???? He like most boxers from 90-100 years ago is very underrated. Time removes luster as all those who watched him live are no longer around to attest. Tunney was a GREAT fighter. He had no obvious faults. Great boxer, good puncher, extremely smart in the ring and few came to fight as physically prepared.

 

I'm actually appreciating Gene Tunney more myself...great footwork, spacing, jab, and survival instincts...but with that said, I would not favor him over a Joe Frazier or George Foreman.

 

He beat a shot Gibbons and Dempsey at heavyweight, a past-it Greb and a past-iy never-was in Carpentier. Not exactly the deepest resume the division has seen.

And there is that pesky little fact that he never faced a fighter of color.

 

He's definitely over rated at HW, as every sub 200 boxer is.

But he's under rated as a p4p beast as every sub 200 boxer is.

Pit a man his size against him and he'll probably beat them. That's about as high praise as he deserves imo.

 

Gene Tunney is interesting to me in that, as Seamus demonstrated, you can really pick apart his resume. The guy was protected and his biggest wins are kind of underwhelming if you start digging. However, despite all of this I think the guy was a terrific, all time great fighter who would have given anyone within 20 pounds of his weight hell. Tunney was always in supreme condition, he lived a Spartan life while fighting where his focus was laser-like on winning and being a success in the ring. The guy was constantly learning and improving, look at his earliest films and look at his last fight and you can see the guy continued to improve to the point where in my opinion he was better in his last fight. He sought out people and fighters who could teach him nuances of the sport that he didn't already know and when he set his sights on beating someone he worked on learning their style and building strategies to beat them like no fighter before him. He was extremely tough, durable, had a lot of heart, was as skilled as anyone of his era, and had an amazing will to win. I just don't think Tunney is the type of guy you can sleep on and sell short. You can criticize his path to the title, matchmaking, some of the out-of-the-ring shenanigans he participated in, etc but once the guy got into the ring he was a real fighter and a real all time great.

 

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Very well said!!!!

 

Tunney vs. Dempsey II is one of the best matches in boxing history imo.

We have very clear footage of that fight, the only we have of Tunney.
And he has some incredible boxing skills.

https://streamable.com/ykn5j

That footwork, accuracy and timing.

 

Tunney probably rates higher head to head than he does in terms of resume.

His heavyweight resume is pretty thin, but the main reason for this is that he retired at his absolute peak, and could almost certainly have done a lot more had he chosen.

Jack Dempsey was indeed well past his prime when Tunney fought him, but it is only fair to point out that he defeated Jack Sharkey between those two fights, who was the best heavyweight in the world after Tunney retired.

When you consider that, Tunney's domination of Dempsey if pretty impressive.

I would not personally favour him over fighters like Frazier or Foreman, but I think that he could be a dangerous foil for almost anybody.