Tunney believed a heavyweight boxer could beat a 460 pound silverback

Hopefully this is covered under fair use, lol. Not that I'm the one who originally uploaded this.

It's a little after Tunney's heyday, but here's a fictional portrayal of Mighty Joe Young (a King Kong sized gorilla) getting into a fistfight with Primo Carnera.

The tropes are there. Joe is slow and stupid, trying to grab the boxer instead of punching or biting him.

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(Joe does flick him under the chin, but that's played for laughs to illustrate the size difference, since Joe is 12 feet tall. When Joe gets serious, he grabs Primo and tosses him, though it's implied he could've done a lot more if he'd been angry after grabbing him.)

EDIT: So for whatever it's worth, @GlaukosTheHammer, there's a starting point if you're curious about popular ideas of grappling gorilla attacks. I think that's probably about as far as I'm going to dig into Tunney's deeply silly article, but before I go, just one more thought. To my ear, the way Tunney describes a boxer beating a gorilla has echoes of the way boxers used to talk about beating wrestlers. I think there's something deeply ingrained in the boxing subculture's psyche that goes, "Hoho, I'm a clever boxing master, and mine foe is a slow, musclebound oaf who needs to grab me to win. He won't be able to take it to the body like a civilized man. Watch me dance around him and cut him down."

Of course, I'm sure the wrestlers have their own communal inner monologue about how they can beat boxers. And perhaps also double-leg a gorilla.

 

IIRC, there was actually a subclass of gladiators who specialized in killing large wild animals with their bare hands. Humans who know what they're doing are a bit more dangerous than the stereotypes today would have it. We haven't always been a couch potato species, and we have certain advantages that we share with other midsized primates. (Like really unsanitary bites.) On occasion, humans will kill small leopards or mountain lions with their bare hands when they're attacked.

That said, male gorillas evolved to beat up other large primate males. It ain't gonna end well for Gene.

 

No. Their skulls are so much thicker and neck and abdominal muscles so much larger. I would imagine it would barely even flinch after receiving a punch from any heavyweight, no matter where they hit it.

 

Primo proving he's the GOAT once again. Incredible P4P victory. Joe had to foul as he couldn't take the heat. We should show this to the GOATs detractors.

 

Only one way to find out for sure, though. For science...

 

Not. Gorilla like that would rip Tunney limb from limb.

 

In about 3 seconds.
This thread can't be for real.

 

Does anyone know anything semi verified about his drinking later in life? He certainly looked a bit like a drinker w the flushed, pouchy face and bloated body.

 

That’s just how apes look, but Mighty Joe Young let himself go later in life.

Have we addressed if it’s same-day weigh-in? Because the ape might be drained coming in at 460.

 

Aside from everything else that's wrong with Tunney's theory, his idea that gorillas might be vulnerable to body blows because they only have 13 ribs is just not true. Gorillas have 13 pairs of ribs - 26 in all, 2 more than a human.

 

Tunney: I came here to count ape ribs and kick ass. And I’m all out of ape ribs.