Where would Tunney be ranked as a heavyweight in the 70s?

I think he’d be very competitive beating most, being a spoiler to Ali … I think he could very possibly beat that Foreman but Superfight Frazier would be too much.

 

Top 40, maybe?

 

He'd beat a prime Foreman because he beat who in his actual career? Please to explain.

 

Maybe bottom half of the 10.

 

I usually avoid cross era fantasy discussions because the sport changes so much, but in this instance, assuming Tunney existed IN the 70's, rather than merely transported on fight night for a one-off time machine fantasy fight, he would probably have been a brilliant LHW and provided Foster with the kind of competition he didn't have in reality.

 

He'd have to pack a bit of weight on to complete with the seventy s guy's.
That's going to slow him down a fair bit,so not sure tbh.

 

As a light heavyweight he'd be bloody great,a good rivalry going with Foster perhaps.. brilliant.

 

4-6.

 

First lets look what he is up against:

1970
Joe Frazier, Champion

1. Muhammad Ali
2. George Foreman
3. Oscar Bonavena
4. Jerry Quarry
5. Mac Foster
6. Henry Cooper
7. George Chuvalo
8. Sonny Liston
9. Jose Ibar Urtain
10. Jose Luis Garcia

1971
Joe Frazier, Champion

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Jerry Quarry
3. George Foreman
4. Oscar Bonavena
5. Mac Foster
6. Jimmy Ellis
7. Floyd Patterson
8. Jose Luis Garcia
9. Jack Bodell
10. Joe Bugner

1972
Joe Frazier, Champion

1. Muhammad Ali
2. George Foreman
3. Jimmy Ellis
4. Ron Lyle
5. Floyd Patterson
6. Ernie Terrell
7. Jose Roman
8. Joe Bugner
9. Ken Norton
10. Jose Luis Garcia

1973
George Foreman, Champion

1. Muhammad Ali
2. Joe Frazier
3. Ken Norton
4. Jerry Quarry
5. Ron Lyle
6. Earnie Shavers
7. Oscar Bonavena
8. Joe Bugner
9. Jimmy Ellis
10. Chuck Wepner

1974
Muhammad Ali, Champion

1. George Foreman
2. Joe Frazier
3. Ron Lyle
4. Oscar Bonavena
5. Joe Bugner
6. Ken Norton
7. Jerry Quarry
8. Chuck Wepner
9. Henry Clark
10. Larry Middleton

1975
Muhammad Ali, Champion

1. Ken Norton
2. Jimmy Young
3. Joe Frazier
4. George Foreman
5. Ron Lyle
6. Earnie Shavers
7. Duane Bobick
8. Joe Bugner
9. Chuck Wepner
10. Randy Neumann

1976
Muhammad Ali, Champion

1. George Foreman
2. Ken Norton
3. Jimmy Young
4. Duane Bobick
5. Ron Lyle
6. Larry Holmes
7. Howard Smith
8. Johnny Boudreaux
9. Stan Ward
10. Joe Bugner

1977
Muhammad Ali, Champion

1. Ken Norton
2. Jimmy Young
3. Larry Holmes
4. Ron Lyle
5. Duane Bobick
6. Earnie Shavers
7. Kallie Knoetze
8. Alfredo Evangelista
9. Leon Spinks
10. Gerrie Coetzee

1978
Muhammad Ali, Champion

1. Larry Holmes
2. Ken Norton
3. Leon Spinks
4. Ron Lyle
5. Jimmy Young
6. Kallie Knoetze
7. Alfredo Evangelista
8. Gerrie Coetzee
9. Ossie Ocasio
10. Domingo 1979

1979
Title Vacant

1. Larry Holmes
2. John Tate
3. Gerrie Coetzee
4. Mike Weaver
5. Earnie Shavers
6. Leroy Jones
7. Lorenzo Zanon
8. Alfredo Evangelista
9. Gerry Cooney
10. Scott LeDoux

 

Just looking at the rankings, it is obvious that worse men got to #3 from time to time, and sometimes #2.

It would be reasonable to infer that he might well have done the same.

The problem for him, as it was far so many fine fighters in this era, is that eventually he is going to have to come up against Ali, Frazier or Foreman.

 

Too hard to say really. His era was very different and he didn’t fight that many true heavies. On the flip side he was a very fast and crafty boxer who was never stopped in the ring . If forced to guess I’m thinking he WOULD have some sort of a presence in the 70’s but to what degree I haven’t a clue.

 

Jerry Quarry was pretty high, I think he'd at the very least be higher than Quarry. Definitely top 5ish guy

 

He also didn't fight any black opponents. Would he try to avoid these in the 1970's also?

 

Well there were plenty of white guys to fight. Jerry Quarry, Boone Kirkman, Joe Bugner, George Chuvalo, Chuck Wepner, Ron Stander, Dino Denis, Scott Ledoux, Terry Daniels, Dave Zyglewic, Jean Coopman, Rudi Lubbers. And a lot of THOSE guys got title shots and many might have been beatable opponents for Tunney. So if he put together a nice collection of wins over that bunch he’d probably end up with a high rating and a decent record.. maybe every once in a while throw in a fight with a black fighter like scrap iron Johnson to keep things nice and liberal.