Gene Tunney vs 1973 George Foreman

Tunney looks good until he doesn't. Count on Foreman bludgeoning Gene early.

 

I know what you’re saying. I’ve been hit clean by grown men whose punches didn’t hurt me as much as my then 4-year-old once did, with a shot I didn’t expect. A lot more than simple power comes into these things.

 

The ones you don't see coming hurt the most, especially to the jewels.

 

That’s known as the Félix Trinidad Effect.

 

I prefer to call it the "Man Getting Hit by Football" effect.

 

Foreman will have earned a Bachelors in boxing by the time the fight is over. Tunney by 13th round knockout while being miles ahead on the cards.
He controls the range, either being too far or too close to be hit cleanly in the first half of the fight and lets Foreman waste energy chasing him around the ring. He then keeps landing the ol' one-two, moves close to tie Foreman up and then immediately moves out of range again, rinse and repeat till the knockout which will no doubt be in part to Foreman being too tired to continue.
Foreman doesn't have a single win over a quality counter puncher with good legs and I am not going to bank on him beating one of the best and fastest fighters of this kind. The closest thing to Tunney in the 70s were Ali and Young (both slower than prime Gene) and Foreman just couldn't consistently hit them cleanly to knock them out.

 

Foreman didn't have any matches with good quality counter punchers until Ali, and Young, with George coming into both fights unprepared for the environment, and unprepared mentally- So we can't entirely take these as good examples for a fantasy fight with Tunney, unless you want to put Foreman under those conditions to begin with. Alongside that, George wasn't able to knock out neither Jimmy nor Muhammad because of how good their chins were (Foreman did have Young nigh out on his feet, though, and I do think that a prime George would've knocked him out). Young was only ever stopped while he was green against Shavers, and during the Mask of Blood incident with Cooney, and besides that, he was never down when facing Shavers for the second time, nor Norton, nor Lyle either of the times that they fought, nor Sims or the aforementioned Cooney! And do I even need to explain how good Ali's chin was? He faced Liston twice, Patterson twice, Bonavena, Ellis, Norton thrice, Foreman, Lyle, Frazier thrice (And was only down once), and Shavers while he was near retirement without ever getting knocked out (Apart from a late career retirement against Holmes). I can't imagine that Tunney will be able to take the same amount of punishment as them, ESPECIALLY when he's floating under the cruiser limit.

 

So, Tunney finally decides to step into the ring against a black man and the first black man chosen is 1973 George Foreman?

Foreman by stoppage due to Tunney's soiled trunks.

 

Foreman corners him inside 3 rounds and lays him out.

I did a post with illustrations on the Young KD a while back, one of the most overstated KD's in the history of boxing.

Post #72, i need to make it into it's own thread at some point.

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/prime-george-foreman-vs-zhang.722259/page-5#post-22921356

 

Oof, the Zhang thread. That may have well been my christening onto this forum.

 

Foreman despite becoming champion in 1973 was still a green fighter and Tunney was the type of opponent Foreman’s team liked to avoid.

Tunney isn’t an opponent that Foreman would be able to run over like he did Frazier or Norton. Both fought Foreman stupidly and both admitted to such after getting destroyed.

Tunney was every bit as cunning and a fighter as Ali or Young was. Both figured out Foreman’s limitations and used Foreman strength and power against him. Tunney would do the same and once Foreman ran out of steam Tunney would stop him.

 

These are the two fights against guys with similar styles to Tunney. They tell us a lot more than the quick blow outs of Norton and Frazier who had no retreating ability to speak of. Foreman was not out of shape for Young or Ali, neither was he old. He gassed out throwing largely ineffective blows at two defensively abled fighters who rode out the risky moments and then got their victories. You can't argue that Foreman only fought stupidly against Ali and Young but he would somehow change his approach and deal with a faster boxer in Tunney. You would have to point out to me where Foreman fought a boxer of that caliber and defeated them. Because the only example I have now is Moorer and the main reason for that was Michael severely underestimating George and standing in front of him after having beaten him to a pulp for the majority of the fight.
If the answer is that he underestimated Ali and Young, well, he underestimates Tunney too, who never underestimated anyone so that would work in his favor.

I agree. It's a good thing Tunney has a phenomenal noggin, zero knockout losses, great recuperative abilities and fought Jack Dempsey twice.

 

Sounds like there were a few. What names would you throw up that were Tunney like fight and Foreman avoided?

Where can i find both of these guys admitting they fought stupid fights against Foreman?

What was Frazier going to do, dance around the perimeter all night and take full advantage of his reach advantage? When had Frazier's style, his only real style, let him down? He was favored to win based on his own style, yes?

Should Norton had brought his spare chin, the granite one? Norton was wet paper when retreating or trying to evade, should he have swarmed George?

And Tunney was around 25 pounds and more lighter than Ali and Young. Tunney would have had a hole punched thru him trying to emulate rope a dope.

 

Peralta was an excellent fighter and experienced, but he had a major weakness, which was no right hand. If he had a right hand he most likely would’ve beaten Foreman. Tunney has no such weakness.

Also, Foreman’s chin won’t matter once he’s out of steam and his legs go. Ali dropped him like a bad habit once Foreman was out of steam and stopped him. Young also dropped Foreman once Foreman was out of gas and if he bothered showed up in top shape also likely would’ve stopped Foreman, but he only showed up in so so shape.

Tunney was always in impeccable shape and would have no problem finishing Foreman once Foreman was out of gas, which he usually was after 6-7 rounds.