Its conventional wisdom to say 'Dempsey is a greater HW than Tunney and Dempsey was past it when they fought'. 1. Tunney may have always beat Dempsey, the fact he pretty much dominated start to finnish and Dempsey gave little indication he could trouble Tunney gives us that impression. Tunney's jab, movement, defense and counter punching gave Dempsey nightmares and that may always have been the case. Dempsey was only 31 and at his weighed pretty much what he weighed in his prime when they fought 2. Tunney's best wins over Dempsey (twice), Greb (5fights), Gibbons, Carpentier, Loughran may edge Dempseys resume (yes some were at LHW but Dempseys better wins are over a couple of those) 3. Tunney beat every man he ever faced 4. Dempsey's own resume is a bit weak, he also didnt face the best contenders of his time not fighting the likes of Wills and the period he ruled in is a little weak So does anyone rate Tunney over Dempsey?
No, Tunney did have many fights as a HW with Dempsey being out of his prime on top of that. How many top 10 lists do you seem Tunney making at HW. You can't play the "he beat him so he ranks higher" game. And it's not for us to say it's inconceivable for Dempsey of 1919 to lose to Tunney. In fact, most would say otherwise. With Tunney having a limited HW resume it's hard to rank him ahead of Dempsey. If you do so then you should probably rank Holyfield over Tyson Lewis over Tyson Foreman over Frazier Holmes over Ali Unless, you're saying it's his work at LHW that should count for that much? In my eyes, I count other divisions marginally when examining Heavyweights. It counts for something, it's a part of their resume but it doesn't rank as well as an accomplishment as a HW. My list is the greatest heavyweights of all time, not the greatest fighters that fought at heavyweight. Tunney should get loads of credit for beating Tunney, though. Ranking him ahead would be too much. As for Dempsey. Everyone can jump on his competetion and that's fair game. The big thing is the #1 contender in Willis for nearly 7 years. But for Dempsey he demolished much bigger fighters, and had a lot of ferocity that was exciting along with good boxing skills. How does Tunney fare against some of these giant heavyweights. Tunney was the right man to do the job on Dempsey, but guys like Williard would stand better against a Tunney than a destroyer like Dempsey who handles someone like that as just a big target to bang.
No. I just consider him the better fighter overall, lb4lb, whatever you want to call it. The face he schooled Dempsey only adds to his legend.