Gene Tunney's decision to fight Heeney instead of Sharkey in finale

You said yourself, Tunney didnt choose Heeney, Rickard did. Criticizing Tunney for facing the man the promoter was willing to pay him to fight doesnt hold water. Was there an offer on the table to fight Godfrey or Sharkey? No. There wasnt. Promoters drive the sport. Moreso in that era. If three promoters offered a fight each with Godfrey, Sharkey, and Heeney for equal terms you might be able to quibble but Heeney still turned out no worse than Sharkey in the elimination. Furthermore, Rickard was always looking for exotic foreign fighters to promote against domestic champions. Heeney fit that bill. His record was also just as good in the run up to Tunney as anyones. He had beaten Delaney who had won the first bout of the eliminator against Jack Renault, Jim Maloney, and drawn with both Sharkey and Uzcudun. Then from an aesthetic standpoint Heeney presented the possibility of a better fight, being an aggressive bulldog type fighter to Tunney's boxer rather than the pitting two counter punchers like Tunney and Sharkey against one another and risking a match where the two just stared at each from across the ring for 15 rounds.

 

Heeney = qualified best
at the time

fight with Tunney was announce after Sharkey lost with John Risko . Heeney had win with Risko only few month ago before this

Heeney win with Risko & draw with Sharkey. 1-0-1
Risko lose with Heeney & win with Sharkey 1-1
Sharkey draw with Heeney & lose with Risko 0-1-1

 

Great post. I wasn’t up with the finer details so now I feel that much better informed.

Opinions vary but personally I’ve no doubt Dempsey fouled Sharkey badly, a DQ warranted.

Protect yourself at all times? LOL, any man hit in the nuts (as I assume we all have been at some stage) knows your universe implodes all the way down to your gonads - impossible to think about anything else.

Gene’s self rationalised proclamations sounded like those of Jeffries a few decades prior when The Boilermaker neared his own retirement.

Tunney vs Sharkey would’ve been very interesting. We know the Boston Gob could be erratic but when switched on he was quite the fighter - Gene The Dancing Machine would’ve known this.

Do you think Sharkey’s poorer performances were due to his fighting down to the level of lesser opposition or was Jack just randomly erratic, opposition notwithstanding?

 

Sharkey is actual 0-2-1 in last 3 fight when Tunney announcements will fight the Heeney

0 win
2 loss
1 draw

no. this is not most quality contender at all

 

When is your Dempsey book coming out?

 

yes
0 wins

 

ok this is your opinion:
Sharkey 0 wins in 3 last fight does not matter Sharkey loss to Risko & draw with Heeney does not matter. on 'round robin "" Sharkey come out last of the 3, him & Risko & Heeney .. bottom place last. but does not matter because Vitali Klitschko something yes. I see. thank you.

 

think he was purse dollars 1,000,000 for with Heeney fight (how much is this at today dollars?)
& then he marry rich lady & retire
this yes it means he knows what he is doing. this is good move rare in the boxing history

 

Great post! Tunney was smart a motivated Sharkey would have given him a very tough nights work.
The public did not respond to the Heeney match and Rickard lost money for choosing the pedestrian New Zealander.

 

Again, Rickard was the one who was holding the purse strings. Not Tunney. Sharkey losing controversially to Dempsey allowed Dempsey to get a shot at Tunney. Not Heeney. It was a year later before Sharkey-Heeney resulted in a draw. In that fight Sharkey's performance was panned by most critics. Heeney showed pluck and made the fight while Sharkey was content to lay back and wait for counters. Its no wonder Rickard chose Heeney because, again, two counterpunchers would have been box office poison. Heeney was an exotic attraction and an aggressive fighter who gave the prospect of a better fight from a aesthetic standpoint.

Sharkey was not named to fight immediately for the vacant title. When Tunney retired Rickard devised a new elimination tournament of which Sharkey was a part. Rickard died before this tournament could move forward and Sharkey fought Stribling in a planned elimination bout which was part of that tournament. It would be two years after Tunney retired that Sharkey ultimately fought for the vacant title. From the time he had drawn with Heeney and lost to Risko (which predated Tunney-Heeney) Sharkey went undefeated, beating Delaney, DeKuh, Christner, Loughran, Stribling, and Scott. Most of those fights were big promotions. Heeney fell apart after losing to Tunney and Schmeling emerged as a threat. These things happen but you cant judge what happened in the summer of 1928 based on what hadnt happened yet.

As for Godfrey he had just lost to Risko, who had lost in his eliminator, and had a terrible showing against Uzcudun when Tunney fought Heeney. When Tunney retired he stated that ONE of the reasons he was doing so was because he didnt say anyone on the horizon that was dangerous enough to attract the fans attention. He stated that if someone emerged he might be convinced to forgo his retirement. Two weeks later Godfrey, who was coming off two sub par performances, loses to Gains and goes back to fighting ham and eggers for the next two years. Was Tunney wrong? It took two years to find two candidates that emerged as suitable for a vacant title.

The only thing that changes if Tunney had fought Sharkey or Godfrey is that we would be having this very same discussion but questioning why Dempsey didnt get a rematch when he beat Sharkey on a DQ or why Sharkey or Godfrey was given the title shot over Heeney. When you have one champion in every weight division not every tom dick and harry are going to get title shots just because they have an interesting story and a couple of decent looking wins on boxrec.