Dempsey puts down Tunney in 1080p

Agreed. Tunney was down for 14 seconds though. This arguably could be ruled a knockout victory for Dempsey by fans. I think Tunney was ok and ready to go by 9, but fact remains he still stayed down for another 5 seconds.

 

Tunney was only required to follow the ref's count, which he did. It's not like they hand him a stop watch when he goes down so he can keep time himself.

 

It's also fortunate for Tunney that Jersey Joe Walcott wasn't the referee at Soldier Field that night, with Nat Fleischer ordering him to stop the fight.

 

Tunney took a dive so as to keep public interest alive in a potential 3rd fight.

 

You beat me to it! Jack could have been the first to regain the heavyweight crown. Even with a win, he may have still retired at that point, but I wonder what a Dempsey-Tunney3 would have looked like gate-wise?

 

Well, Jack was wiped out in the 1929 Crash, and was able to rebound on the strength of his name, with exhibitions, refereeing gigs, product endorsements, and promotions, so a third match between the two would have been similarly huge. That he didn't even box in exhibitions for four years after Tunney II reveals much about whether or not he might have retired after winning in Chicago.

Dempsey quit fearing for his eyesight, something he had to be extremely mindful of given the plights of Langford and Greb. Win or lose, I suspect Tunney II would have been his final championship competition. He had a rough time in his final matches, and was clearly fading. Aside from the knockdown, Gene won a yet more one sided match than he did in Philly, and improved even further with Heeney. (Although I've always believed that the Dempsey of Toledo would have forced a stoppage over the Tunney of the Heeney fight, I also realize that we never got to find out how much better Gene might have become. He could have held the title for years.)

King Levinski had the youthful spring in his legs Jack used to have during their 1932 exhibition, and the contrast is stunning, especially considering the fact that the Kingfish was not a dancing cutie.

 

This footage now needs to be synchronized with the clarified recording of Graham McNamee's live ringside call for NBC, perhaps including closed captioning, as I have no idea how much it could be cleaned up off of 78 rpm phonograph records. What I remember listening to on earphones off my late grandfather's modern turntable was considerably clearer than this. The records he had of their fight were loaned to him by his business partner over 20 years ago. I wonder how much they'd be worth today. We should be raiding places which still have old records like these, before this history winds up lost in the garbage.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2-QwAbP6Yw[/ame]

 

Cmon, this is ridiculous (I am a Dempsey fan btw). A boxer has to beat the ref's count. He does not have to be up within 10 seconds of being put down, he has to be up before the ref counts 10.

Staying down beyond the 10 seconds, up until the ref counts 8 or 9, is simply the common-sense thing to do if you have been hurt. There is no advantage at all to getting up earlier, and plenty of danger involved. So any smart boxer will take the full count.

If you look at the footage, Tunney was clearly aware by 8-9 seconds after the knockdown. He could have got up easily.