Why is Gene Tunney super underrated?

Greb beat Tunney like a drum in the first fight, and two others were very dubious wins. The last fight Greb had one freaking eye working, and by that time he was old and beat up and Tunney was larger and in his prime. And Dempsey beat him....no question about it; the Long Count was 14 freaking seconds. Today it would be a win for JD. Even with Laurance Cole doing the ref work.

And I will ALWAYS point out any time the name of Tunney is mentioned...he never fought an African American. Not once. He avoided them like they had COVID. Did that make him a racist, and does that matter? No, but it means he avoided some very good boxers.

 

-90% of his opponents were middleweight or light heavyweights.
-Rumors that he didn't want to fight the number one contender Harry Willis, fearing he might lose his opportunity to fight Dempsey.
-Speaking of Dempsey, the guy stayed out of the ring for like 3 years before defending his title against gene, showing he was a fighter in decline when he came back (especially in the jack Sharkey fight), since he has lost his great speed and his excellent ability to cut the ring off.
-after beating the rusty Jack twice, he did defend the title against Tom heeney instead of his mandatory challenger jack Sharkey, then he retired.
Tunney is probably one of the Greatest lightheavyweights who ever lived, but as a heavyweight ??
No.

 

Don't listen to these old time haters and race baiters like Franklin. Posters like him just stir up hate and anger. Sorry. There are a lot of good posters here. Welcome.

 

His accomplishments split between both LHW and HW. He didn't accomplish enough quantity to enter the mighty top 10 HW discussion but I do agree he gets undersold a little bit in All Time Rankings sort of talks.

 

Lol actually he’s overrated

 

He is ranked very highly by many. But he was more a light heavy. Perhaps the best of all time. He did lose to Grab and probably Dempsey on the long count.

He is one of the greatest of all time, without a doubt. That said -he may not do well against the heavier fighter of today.

I would favor him against Foreman ( older) Patterson, Norton, Moorer, Morrison, and he would be in almost any fight that was pure boxing. A dream fight for me would be him against Holyfield and Marciano.

 

Tunney on film is perfect, on film he never ever is not in control of the initiative but his resume is not the strongest ...if he came out on top against the light heavies in 20s (not just loughran but Jack delaney ,Paul Berlenbach and Jimmy Slattery ) and or beat up the heavies of the 30s( schmeling ,sharkey, Braddock ,baer) etc I would rank him super high! but he is a guy with amazing skills but not the strongest resume!

 

Why would you say that?

 

I'm just stating facts. He never fought a black boxer. Period. End of statement. Are you going to dispute that fact? He never even had black sparring partners whereas Dempsey had several guys like Big Bill Tate that he used for years. Facts.

 

I believe the main reason he does not get the recognition is that he retired immediately after the Heeney fight, his second defense of the title. Had he put together a string of successful title defenses over a period of several years against the top heavyweight contenders he would be better remembered. A Tunney-Sharkey fight would have been interesting. Sharkey missed out on that fight first by losing to Dempsey iin the eliminator in July, 1927, and again in 1928 by drawing with Heeny then losing to Risko, enabling Heeney to get the title fight. Still, a Tunney-Sharkey fight would be popular at any time. At the time of his retirement, Tunney was at the top of his form and would have been the favorite over any challenger. He was a real thinking-man's fighter who made a thorough study of his opponent prior to their bout and always entered the ring in top condition. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of his opposition and always brought a well-planned strategy to each fight. And he also had a Plan B in case something went wrong. Case in point - the Long Count against Dempsey. This was the only time in his career that he hit the canvas and he took full advantage of the count to recover and regroup. When Dempsey failed to go to the right corner, the ref started the count again which gave Tunney extra seconds, which he took advantage of. Even Dempsey admitted that the mistake was his, not Tunney's, and Gene did what he should have. Tunney then used his foot speed, quickly recovered and even floored Dempsey for a short count in the next round. Tunney never was a favorite with the fight crowd, largely because he was the one who dethroned Dempsey, who ironically gained popularity in defeat. The Dempsey-Tunney fights were million dollar gates; the Tunney-Heeney fight not so. Gene was never the drawing card that Dempsey had been.

Because of his solid skills and work ethic, I always believed that had he chosen to fight on, he could have held the heavyweight title through the early 30s and possibly until the arrival of Joe Louis. This presumes that he would have stayed motivated and in condition during this time. In real time, however, Gene Tunney had stated that he wanted to make a million dollars boxing, get married, and retire from boxing. That is exactly what he did. No doubt he was aware that retiring when he did could detract from his boxing legacy, but he was true to himself. And unlike so many others before and after he resisted the temptation to come back and I give him a lot of credit for that.

 

Tunney was a superb fighter an all time great p4p. One official loss. Yes some of his wins over Greb are disputed but here’s the thing, he improved - he took a frightful beating in the first fight, how many guys come back from that and do better. It’s shows his focus and determination as a fighter. Greb admitted he could no longer challenge Tunney after their final confrontation. Yes Greb was declining but he knew how much Gene improved.
Yes he never fought a black fighter, but he fought and defeated many that did. He also offered to fight Wills - Wills turned down the offer feeling he had done enough for the Dempsey fight without having to take another high profile bout. Some do say that Tunney only did this for show, so who knows. But knowing what Sharkey did to Wills, I have know doubt Gene would of stopped Wills at that point in Wills career.
As for the Dempsey long count bout, I believe Gene beats the count. He looks clear headed enough to me to get up at 8-9, could he hold Jack off after that is the question. Dempsey was old and rusty but Gene still won 19 of 20 rounds off of Jack. Impressive.
Great fighter.
Smart. Determined. Great legs. Composed at all times. Vicious.
If he didn’t retire he would of racked up wins at heavyweight for several years.
As for a bout with Sharkey - Sharkey blew it by only earning a draw with Heeney. Yes Sharkey was the better opponent but he let himself down with that fight. Not Gene’s fault. And look how badly Gene outclassed Heeney. He ruined him. Sharkey may of been fortunate to miss that fight after all.

 

Tunney was a great and smart boxer, but not a spectacular puncher like Dempsey. He had not much killer instinct either. When he knocked his foe out, he often helped him back on his feet afterwards. His career as a heavyweight, especially as world champion, was also rather short.
If you compare e.g., Tyson and Holyfield, I think Tyson is more popular overall. Of course, Holyfield was a different kind of fighter than Tunney but not a spectacular puncher like Tyson/Dempsey either. However, Holyfield is considered a warrior like Marciano, Frazier, Gatti etc. which is a popular style with fans too and his time in the heavyweight division was far more significant/more noticeable than Tunney's.
Last but not least, Tunney's active career is quite some time ago.

 

I don’t think he’s underrated by anyone who has watched or read a lot of boxing spanning many eras.

I think the issue is probably, the CV wasn’t littered with a variety of big names (although debatable he did fight two of the biggest names and talent of that generation and holds victories over both)

I also think that generation is generally considered a weak generation, as at heavyweight the big names started to come after Genes retirement.

Additionally there isn’t a massive amount of Tunney fights available to watch, you only really get to see a really small amount of his career the rest you have to read about.

One thing which I think is rarely mentioned in the gloves back then, I own a pair of 1930s gloves handed down, and although deteriorated over the years you can tell the padding was next no nothing. So although there is advancement in technology, training etc, the lack of padding in those gloves, if you would have been getting hit by them constantly it would feel a lot more thudding that it would today. If you were taking punches by Grebb and Dempsey amongst other and surviving you must have had a good set of whiskers.

I have him comfortably a top 10 light heavyweight as that the weight he would be fighting at today. He would be a challenge at that weight for even the elite light heavies for me.