Gene Tunney Vs Ezzard Charles

Charles with educated aggression will steal it if they’re both at their absolute bests.

I like the explosiveness and technique combined with the balance to be able to force moments which Charles is able to get the better of because of those things.

 

Charles and that **** ain't even close. Spinks is the rival here not Tunney

 

Faster,better chin. pretty much a level fight but Gene nicks it imo

 

Which ones should he have fought?

 

It would likely be a closely contested match. I'd edge Tunney .. he only lost to arguably the greatest P4P fighter of all time.. Gene was stronger, hit slightly harder and took a better shot ... Tunney was a fighter ahead of his time.. a highly intelligent astute operator .. he'd study Charles' style and come up with a plan to beat him.

 

This is totally false one of the very top Lightheavy of ANY era he beat in Tommy Gibbons, not to mention Tommy Loughran. Complete Bias in this statement. You reduced his entire career to a point in time he was unable to control (jack looking old). Tunney was in one of the best decade's for light heavyweights.

 

Absolute nonsense. Greb probably has the deepest win resume at LHW of any LHW ever.. & Dempsey old or not would have flattened Charles.. who was put on his arse a bunch of times by Bivins and Lloyd Marshall.. Tommy Gibbons was a gifted highly skilled LHW & Loughran is one of the LHW GOATs too... Tunneys resume is excellent.

https://thegruelingtruth.com/boxing/ezzard-charles-harry-greb-light-heavyweight-perspective/

 

Ezzard Charles by decision.

 

Ezz's resume is just too deep and too varied for me to pick Tunney. When one has multiple wins over Archie Moore (and I know Tunney has multiple over Greb but Greb will always be primarily a MW), add to that wins over Bivens, Ray, Marshall, Billy Smith, Maxim, Burley, Christoforidis (sp), not too mention that his heavyweight resume was far, far deeper than Tunney's. I go with the more proven product.

And for all the speed that Tunney supposedly possessed, how is that calculated? What we have on film is him fighting older shopworn guys who are slowed down, not any fast-twitch types on the docket. Sure, he looks fast in comparison to them. But Ezz looks faster, and certainly more dynamic, in the past prime footage we have of him, against guys who can really whip.

 

charles was so much better. and i doubt tunney could have hurt him bar a lucky shot.

 

Charles' resume beats Tunney by a ways, especially considering the versions of Gibbons, Carpentier and Dempsey that Gene faced, and the weight advantages he held over Greb in their fights. The decision over Loughran, who Gene outweighed by 10 pounds, was over 8 rounds and was debatable.

 

True but he’s a middleweight that arguably has the best resume in light heavyweight history. And Tunney beat him more emphatically than anyone else did, by Greb’s own admission I’m pretty sure.

Forgot the source to this Greb quote but it gives you an idea of how he viewed Gene:

“They'll never beat me trying for the body; that is nobody but Tunney will. And he is different from the rest."

That’s high praise from the arguable GOAT, and even in 1923-25 would Greb be someone you’d call slow twitch? Would you call Gibbons slow twitch in the footage of him brutally countering Jack Bloomfield less than a year before fighting Tunney? Those guys match up well with Charles’ best opponents, even the younger lighter version of Loughran would probably hold his own.

 

Tunney outgrew Greb which Harry admitted. Just because Greb could often handle the bigger guys didn't mean he could always handle them. And not too long past 1920 Greb started his decline. The version of Gibbons that Tunney beat I would definitely call slow twitch.

 

Would you say the same for the version of gibbons that fought Bloomfield or just the version that fought Tunney? Did the newsmen in prior fights note this decline? Maybe Gene just made him look slow.

Even by Greb’s decline he was still beating Walker, Rosenbloom, Loughran, Flowers in at least two of their fights, and my some reports even Tunney himself in their fourth fight in 1924 which Gene was basically in his peak for. I’ve read that Greb, while generous in complimenting Gene after their fifth fight, was still open to a sixth (at least according to klompton) so clearly he didn’t outgrow him THAT much. Wasn’t Tunney always in the 180s against Greb?

 

No, Tunney was 181lbs in their fifth & final fight, and within the LHW limit for each of their first four bouts.