Holmes vs. Tunney

I'd probably favor him over every one of them. He beat multiple guys with wins over those guys like Renault and Miske.

As to why he didn't fight them Firpo wasn't good enough to really warrant a fight with Greb and wasn't relevant long and with Wills and Godfrey you have the color line.

Fulton is the only one who would have been a priority for Greb but he lost to Miske and Renault both of whom Greb beat.

 

Going into the Spinks fight he had stopped 71% of his opponents. That's pretty damn impressive considering the generally high caliber of opponent he maintained. Also, on film and in anecdote he was noted to be quite strong and very good at the rough stuff. If I recall he was a very good high school wrestler.

 

Holmes wins a decision, Tunney gives a good account of himself but in the end gets beaten up.

 

Yup. He was always into sports, and in his own account, he was playing football with high schoolers when he was in middle school. The Big Black cloud was rough and tough.

 

Greb had no problem fighting black guys.

 

While I think Tunney has become pretty underrated nowadays, I don't fancy his chances against Holmes. Tunney is perhaps slightly technically more correct but Holmes is bigger, faster and so so proven. They're fighting with the same basic gameplan and frankly I think Holmes is going to triumph in this battle of the jabs. Holmes on points.

 

Didn't say Tunney was stronger.

 

71% isn't as impressive for a heavyweight champion. That's probably on the middle-lower end of the scale for HW champions. The best fighter Holmes beat was a 34-year-old Ken Norton.
High school wrestling or no he's still not going on anybody's list of strongest HW's.

 

First off. Tunney drew the color line. He would never fight Holmes.

Tunney also never fought against a tall big man, let alone against one of the toughest and most skilled of all time.

Tunney kept his hands low..Holmes would eat him alive with the jab

 

It’s a fantasy match. Why this colour line issue comes into these things from time to time, I don’t understand, except to (unsuccessfully) slander one of the fighters.

 

Why would Tunney be fighting Holmes’ gameplan?

 

All facts

Slander means something that is untrue

 

glad you recognize the logic.

Holmes actually fought and defeated fighters comparable to Tunney

did Tunney face one fighter, give me one fighter he faced who had even a tiny similarity to Holmes’ combination of height, reach, skill, and jab?
If someone of Holmes size and ability stepped in the ring vs Tunney in 1926..Tunney would be completely overwhelmed

and based on history it wouldn’t happen. Tunney would have hid behind the color line

 

“Based on history” no fantasy match ups could happen, because they didn’t.