He didn't face great boxers either. Dempsey was past his prime when they met, and then there's the long count in the rematch.
I don't think you can really make any argument for Levinsky being great when Tunney fought him. Gibbons and Greb were past their best, but still great fighters. Dempsey was still good, but I don't think you could say he was great when he hadn't won a fight in 3 years, and should have lost to Sharkey. He has some other decent wins in Georges Carpentier, Jimmy Delaney, Johnny Risko, Charley Weinert. Overall a pretty thin record though, certainly compared with the overwordly depth of Ezzard Charles's record.
I already explained about Dempsey. Tunney beat him when Dempsey was past his best and would have lost the second bout if not for the long count. Greb was a MW, it's logical he didn't have enough power to stop Tunney. Loughran was a LHW. And Gibbons is not an ATG HW as far as I'm concerned.
Don't get me wrong, I pick Charles here and I agree that he has significant resume advantage. I just don't agree that Tunney didn't face good boxers, even these version of Gibbons and Greb were really good and Dempsey was always dangerous.
Charles has an extremely deep resume at the lower weights, his resume at Heavyweight in stronger than Tunney's but I think it's a lot closer than their overall resume. I don't think it really matters here anyway, they were pretty similar sized guys.
Do you really think it matters though? They are the same size basically and they would probably fight around 180 lbs.
This is not the 1980s anymore when Tunney made the top ten heavies of the heavies of the then last century (1880s to 1980s). Gene generally lacks love in this era, and Charles gets the kudos (that he deserves) that he did not get in that period. For me this is far more interesting as a clash when both were at their 175lbs pomp, but at Heavy I still have my mullet and love the decade, so I am giving Tunney the nod on a decision.
easily not on a resume level at light heavy and overall Ezzard is better than Tunney . But in terms of skills I got Tunney .The only thing that stopped Tunney from being the goat light heavy is his lack of depth ,he should have fought more elites .
Ez faced Rocky at 185 and 192. He faced Layne and Walcott at 192. Tunney was 190 for both Dempsey fights. More importantly, Ez faced a lot of very good heavies for his day... Layne, Walcott, Oma, Louis, Valdes... guy who went 190-218. I think it matters to a degree, not overwhelming but not totally insignificant.