Can Gene Tunney go 53-1 against Joe Louis’ competition up until WW II?

That's a lot of losses,but Tunney is something of an unknown quantity,and we are judging him against a top 4 all time heavy imo.Funny thing is Tunney theoretically could beat Louis ala Billy Conn,I'm not saying he would but it is a possibility imo.

 

Agreed 100%. A one off scenario is a different beast entirely to the context of doing it night in, night out for an entire career

 

No he did not give Louis more points than either of the judges.

• Referee: [url]Arthur Donovan[/url] 10-5

• Judge: [url]Tommy Shortell[/url] 5-10

• Judge: [url]George LeCron[/url] 10-4

Donovan's score card in the Farr fight was criminally bad. And he had to be removed as the ref in the Walcott fight, but the MSG judges were still on Joe's side in a fight 2/3 at ringside felt he lost.

There is plenty of evidence Louis was favored by the judges against what the film or the media scored.

If Tunney had this man in scoring his fights, he's not losing a decision on Donnovan's card.

 

Tunney's height and reach were even with Louis. He's going to be hit less, the films will show you this. Or consider Tunney was only floored once in far more fights than Louis had, thanks to his defense, smarts and tough chin.

You expect Tunney to lose 10 times vs. Louis opposition? Yikes.

Farr And Nova, bigger men? Hardly. Nova 202 Farr 204. Tunney was 192 for Heeney who was slightly heavier than Nova. If Tunney wanted to could easily be 200 pounds.

Getting back to your size thing, Tunney beat a decent Johnny Risko, who could be over was over 200 pounds at times, but not huge. Are you with me so far? Good, because Risko beat bigger men such as Max Bear ( 210 ) Galento ( 230+ ), Campolo ( 225 ) , and Godfrey 235 )

So here we have a guy several levels below Tunney close to his weight beating bigger men. Why couldn't Tunney do the same?

 

Okay he gave him more ROUNDS,happy now!JHC!

Donovan gave two verdicts in Louis fights.


Donovan wasnt removed as the referee for the Walcott fight that's a load of BS!

 

If Louis was protected by the MSG judges, why was the Walcott rematch at Yankee Stadium?lol

 

Lot of people underestimating Tunney. The guy retired while peaking. That shouldn’t be a source of derision. Inconclusive yes but we have a fair amount of film of Tunney and the glass is certainly half full.
He was outclassing sturdy trial horses at heavy - he stopped Bartley Madden in 3 rounds. Madden was only stopped 2 times in his career, and took Harry Wills the distance in a fight that is filmed.
He stopped Heeney easily when Heeney was coming off the best run of his career and he was the only man to stop Gibbons. Yes in his final fight.
He also pretty clearly schooled Dempsey outside of the 7th round in the rematch. Yeah Dempsey was rusty - so maybe you can’t draw too many conclusions from that - but when a man dominates good trial horses of the era- Risko, Madden, Heeney, it is clearly indicative of a fighter who is a cut above the competition.
Tunney would school Baer and easily beat someone like Godoy. I don’t believe he goes 53-1 because Louis was a bigger heavy with a better punch but the tough Marine I say would have no more than 4 losses along the same run imo. And he would be a tough tough matchup for Louis himself.
Tunney, could move, he could hit, he could take a punch, and he always had a game plan and never panicked.

 

No Louis was 6'1.5" Tunney 6'.Tunney was only190lbs or over once in major fights ,for the Heeney bout in which he could afford to carry a little more. Tunney was 12 .5lbs lighter than Nova and 14.5lbs lighter than Farr , he fought at his best weight , why would he want to be 200lbs? Tunney was only floored once as far as we know ,there is some speculation about the Houck fight. Tunney also only fought a handful of heavyweights and outside of Dempsey who of them were punchers? Louis fought a shed load of bangers.

 

Well I want to flesh out my answer and make a comment on the observation I’ve made that i’ve Seen from other posters. Smarty face. In short No he wouldn’t. But i’m Not sure how many would of any. I don’t think Marciano does it either. Tunney was great even if he couldn’t duplicate that feat.

 

One thing that should be considered.

Louis got some close decisions, the first Godoy fight could have gone either way.

 

Tunney's height and reach were even with Louis. He's going to be hit less, the films will show you this. Or consider Tunney was only floored once in far more fights than Louis had, thanks to his defense, smarts and tough chin.

You expect Tunney to lose 10 times vs. Louis opposition? Yikes.

Farr And Nova, bigger men? Hardly. Nova 202 Farr 204. Tunney was 192 for Heeney who was slightly heavier than Nova. If Tunney wanted to could easily be 200 pounds.

Getting back to your size thing, Tunney beat a decent Johnny Risko, who could be over was over 200 pounds at times, but not huge. Are you with me so far? Good, because Risko beat bigger men such as Max Bear ( 210 ) Galento ( 230+ ), Campolo ( 225 ) , and Godfrey 235 )

So here we have a guy several levels below Tunney close to his weight beating bigger men. Why couldn't Tunney do the same?

I've got Tunney at 6'1" tall. Maybe Louis was 1/2 inch taller. Their reach was the same. Louis had more fat on him.

As I showed you above a guy Tunney beat in Risko had a lot of success vs bigger guys. I don't think giving up 12-14 pound is much if you 192 pounds and Tunney was trending up a little in weight for the Heeney fight. Had he continued 195 would not be out of the question for Tunney.

Yes Louis fought his share of punchers, most of whom were not very skilled, yet they floored him. But Tunney was very hard to floor, and had a top chin. Those point stand. Dempsey fans say Carpentier can hit. Tunney beat him.

 

I will go further and say that it is unreasonable to argue that Tunney would do this.

It goes so far beyond anything that he even attempted, and requires such a broad raft of assumptions regarding what he could do, that it would be almost like predicting that somebody could do after they had just fought their pro debut!