Dempsey vs Tunney, 1924. 15 rounds. 22 x 22 ring.

Dempsey wasn't really prime at 29. His best performance said so by himself was at 24 and everything else was downhill from that.

 

Tunney by a wide 15 round decision.

 

No. Dempsey's absolute prime was 1918-1919.
You could argue that his prime extends to the Carpentier fight in 1921, but certainly not beyond that.

 

tunney beats toledo dempsey too, styles, with a bigger ring it is all of tunney

 

Dempsey was beat up in ten rds. A 15 rdr, I don't know. Depends if Dempsey was trained for a 15rdr. The 10 rd Dempsey might have had problems going 15.

 

By 1924, Gene Tunney had improved quite a bit as a fighter while Jack Dempsey had slipped a little. At that time, Tunney probably reached a point that he would have been a very bad matchup for even a vintage Dempsey.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Not everyone is prime at 29. Some people have early primes some have late primes and others have great longevity. Usually the more explosive fighters like Tyson, Frazier, and Dempsey have shorter primes while guys who avoid punishment or are slicker like Ali and Tunney have greater longevity.

Also look at Dempsey's circumstances. He was very inactive during his reign and clearly had slowed down by the Firpo fight. None of his performances come close to that of the Willard fight.

 

Willard was made to order, a larger, softer, older, inactive fighter who was ripe to be overwhelmed.

Do we consider Dempsey to be prime a year later when he struggles with Brennan?

Still, if an older, staler Dempsey was able to catch and almost finish a verifiably prime Tunney.... I'm going to have to take him to do so a few years before under these circumstances.

 

I'm going off of what Dempsey himself said. He said that his best performance and his absolute prime was at the age of 24. He claimed that he gathered all of the knowledge of boxing and had nothing else to learn. (He wasn't saying he mastered all of the skills, just that he knew everything to know about boxing.) In effect saying that he was at the absolute pinnacle of his game.

 

Fine. I would argue that he was still a vulnerable guy on some levels, as are all champions, but perhaps he was more vulnerable than others if that was in fact his very best.

Regardless, I think he tracks down a 1924 version of Tunney and stops him.

 

I'd prefer the Dempsey of 1921.

 

Six months after beating Dempsey ,Meehan did the same thing to Langford.