Prime for prime, 15 rounds, with a good referee. Who wins? EDIT: posted in general accidently, mods please move to classic, thank you.
Good Lord. There is only one correct answer. The second greatest heavy ever against a heavyweight footnote.
I rather like another of his quotes " what for that little fat man call me a bum " timeless. stay safe buddy.
Slow footed Joe of the post war years would have hard time with Tunney. The Louis of pre war years say of the Max Baer fight, catches Tunney and blasts him out sometime in the mid rounds. Tunney could move but I just can’t see him surviving the exchanges with Joe. Louis KO 6
a HW vs a LW ?? LOL I think Tunney had his hands full getting his ass kicked by Greb , who incidentally was giving up 12 then 8
Your the first poster I've seen refer to Joe Louis as a footnote. Make no mistake Billy Conn was better Tunny.
But surely if Billy Conn could have the success he had for so long, perhaps Tunney could go further? No? Perhaps?
People underrate Tunney nowadays who was a very modern looking technical boxer. That said you'd have to favour Louis in this.
Tunney has a paperthin resume at heavyweight. Fighters look good when they are going at guys at the very end of their careers... Carpentier, Gibbons, Dempsey.
I looked good on film. But put me in with bigger guys, with guys who had been around the block a few more times, and those looks didn't do anything good. My point being is that Tunney, certainly a great fighter, was not proven to be a great heavyweight. He cleaned up a bunch of the division's has-beens, grabbed some cash and called it good. And good for him. He wasn't really motivated to impress internet posters a hundred years later. But in the larger, historical discussion, it doesn't give us a lot to work with.
