Decent post, except for the underlined .If they were not ranked when he beat them ,he doesn't have that amount of wins over ranked contenders does he?
My argument was that if they retained a ranking after to loss to Tunney, then they would have probably had a higher one before the loss to Tunney, if rankings had existed earlier. Obviously we are in dangerous territory here.
People who follow any of my posts on here know how I feel about Gene Tunney. I've always considered him over rated by most. His Heavyweight Resume is weak, IMHO. If he had faced Sharkey or Schmeling or Wills, and won, I might give him more credit. Certainly, he wasn't anywhere near the worst of the Lineal Champions. I'll give him that. He does look good on film, but I only give films a certain amount of weight. How a boxer looks on film depends a lot on who he's fighting, IMHO, and different choices made in preparations for a fight, and baiting, trap setting, individual choices, etc. Tunney: Top 30? Probably. Top 20? Doubtful. Top 10? Never on my list!
Just to offer my 2 Cents worth on the Color Line. I didn't like it. My parents didn't like it. I wish it had never happened that way in my favorite sport. I will say this, though: To fully understand WHY it happened, I would have had to have been a Promoter, Manager, or at the very least a World Class Heavyweight Fighter, functioning in those days. I was none of those things. As a fan I always hated the idea of it, and still do. We were deprived of probably tens, if not hundreds, of great Heavyweight fights.
Lucky for wills tunney didnt fight him, hed have made a fool of wills The dempsey win over sharkey showed how still danderous dempsey was as many at ringside saw dempsey taking over after third round Tunney looks great on film and was thethe best conditioned heavy Ever outside of perhaps marciano
Tunney shouldn't really be judged as a Fighter. He was probably the smartest, shrewdest guy that ever laced on gloves. He got out of Boxing as a millionaire, in the 20's, and married an heiress, Daughter of a Senator. Tunney lived a fantastic life and died fabulously rich. That's what he fought for. Ain't many happy endings in our hardest of sports. I love Tunney's story.
He has a pretty okay resume and looks ok in film. I'd not place him inside the top 10, and maybe keep him somewhere between the 15-20.