No, no they couldn't. Gibbons was a great fighter. At light heavyweight. He was a nothing at heavyweight, picking on the same breadline sluggers and wharfbrawlers that made up the bulk of the journeymen. A nothing. Nothing. Not at all a thing. Tunney has no relevance to modern heavies. He's on Lou Savarese level at best. Handsome and useless.
If we're talking strictly in regards to H2H ability ? my top 5 would be.... 1. Wladimir Klitschko 2. Oleksandr Usyk 3. Vitali Klitschko 4. Tyson Fury 5. Rocky Marciano If there was a Cruiserweight division in Marciano's era he'd rate alot higher.
The only two white heavies I think of as first rate are Marciano and Usyk. Wlad is a notch below that. Tunney and Jeffries squeeze in there. More on that. Fury, Vitali, Sanders, Morrison, Baer, Schmeling, Quarry, Cooney, Coetzee, Johanson, Carnera, Burns, Willard Braddock, Povektin and Sharkey all a notch below that, some two notches. The color line guys are also in this crew--Sullivan, Corbett, Fitzsimmons and Dempsey. I give Tunney a pass on the color line because, with Wills past his best and Godfrey never really being what he is made out to be, there was no real black contender to fight. Jeffries fought black fighters before winning the title, and even though he ducked Johnson, he came back and took his ass-kicking eventually, which kind of set things right in a weird way. I can appreciate Tunney and Jeffries and their accomplishments enough to put them in the second, tier.
https://s02.yapfiles.com/files/709646/Wladimir_Klitschko_vs_Alexander_Povetkin_4.gif lol at that guy beating Usyk ^
Wlad is such an overrated bum it's disgusting one dimensional midget pusher. Usyk and Fury are the best and sexiest white heavyweights of all time
LMAO .. clueless.. modern heavies are dog **** compared to p4p ATG Tunney .. Tunney Beat ATG MWs Greb & Smith, HOF LHWs, Loughran, Gibbons & Carpentier & ATG HW Jack Dempsey twice.. Even now you could transpose him to this era & hed probably beat all of them barring maybe Usyk.. Roided up useless flat footed doughboys .. HWs are embarrassing today. Fury got beat by a cameroonian wrestler , Joshua needs sectioning & Wilder is the most embarrassing HW I've ever seen .. Tunney SCHOOLS em..
Hi Guys. Not a vexing question in my eyes, Marciano would be that fighter. stay safe fellow posters, chat soon.
Nice rundown of Tunney's accomplishments. You will certainly note the paucity of achievement at heavyweight. And beating a starlet chaffed Dempsey over a ten rounder in the rain doesn't exactly blow my hair back. If you think that stick and jab arm puncher Tunney (the guy is the definition of a push puncher who taps the target not punches through it) would last more than a few rounds with any of today's top ten, I hope you wager often.