Gene Tunney was an awful fighter

Tunney trained for Dempsey by running backwards in sand to strenghten his legs,I think he out points Marciano,but loses to a prime Ali,Ali had boxing ability about on a par with Tunney ,but was considerably bigger ,and his reach would trouble the 6 foot Tunney,how effective would Tunney be going backwards ? I t would be a curious fight with neither man comfortable being the aggressor.I think you give too much credit to Mildenberger and Chuvalo.Mildenberger was Alis first South paw opponent in years,plus he injured his right hand in ,yet,Ali still dropped the German 3 times.
Against Chuvalo ,Ali gave George his body ,and consequently rounds,I know you wont agree with this ,but I think Ali was a little like Johnson ,sometimes giving away rounds he could have won whether fore egos sake ,I dont know.

Doug Jones did give Ali trouble ,but then Ali wasnt the finished article,and Jones was a quick ex lhvy,whose speed may have surprised Ali.

 

Marciano, Frazier, Dempsey all catch up to tunney and stop him. Tunneys chin is unproven vs heavyweight punchers and 200lb + fighters. the only time he was ever hit by a heavyweight, Past his prime Jack Dempsey, he was floored for 14 seconds. Tunneys biggest issue with marciano will be his lack of inside fighting ability, his biggest issue with frazier will be getting trapped on the ropes and trying to lean back out of the way of fraziers left hook, and his biggest issue with dempsey will be dempseys footwork allowing him to keep up with tunney at all angles.

They all beat gene, if even they do struggle early. Harry Greb a 162lb outswarmed him and beat him twice...I think bigger stronger more powerful versions of greb like those 3 beat Gene.

 

Gene Tunney was what many lame brained commentators proclaim Jack Johnson to be. Supremely scientific, quick footed, balanced and unbeatable at his weight.

 

IMO, Tunney is up there with Charles, Foster, Spinks, Moore, Conn and Jones as far as the 175 pound division is concerned, but as for being a HW, he's nowhere near my top 10 list. P4P, hes up there on the list.

 

I love Tunney. You can hear him outthinking, outfeinting Dempsey in their fight.

 

Well its obvious ,one glance at his record ,tells it .All those defeats and kos against him ,his hands were too low thats why he was constantly knocked out ,he couldnt punch,thats why he had no kos on hs record, his defence was poor ,thats why his face was so badly disfigured when he retired.He couldnt fight inside ,thats why he was often beaten by swarmers and body punchers.
Chinny, lacked power, poor technique,he should never have been a fighter.

 

Totally absurd...revisionism at it's worst. I like Calzaghe, but the man who beat Dempsey would have beaten Calzaghe, Hopkins, Jones...

 

Calzaghe was a Super Middleweight. Tunney was one of ,indeed has a claim to be THE best Light Heavy of ALL TIME,imo. Matching him up with the Welshman is nonsensical ,imo.

 

One of for me, as in i have him at number 2, have done for a long time, but i must say the Archie Moore for number 2 campaign is starting to catch up with me, only very recently though

 

the only flaw isee in Tunneys technique is a lack of headmovement he dosent do it enough except from tht near perfect

 

I have seen some fiim comparisons of Tunney & Cassius Clay back in the sixties.

Many similarities, plus Tunney was a "thinking fighter".

He studied Dempsey for several years before he went after him in a title fight.

 

I've never been too impressed with any of the footage of Tunney I've watched personally. For his era he was obviously a great fighter, but people are kidding themselves if they can watch this kind of footage and claim he's among the best technicians from a modern standpoint. The same goes for pretty much any fighter of that era, as the sport had quite simply not finished evolving at that point. That's not to say that he wasn't a skilled boxer, he did show flashes of great technique, but more often than not he just looked awkward and crude, and he was supposed to have been considered one of the smoothest boxers of the era. Sorry for going against the grain, but if it's not there, I'm not going to claim I see it.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhcFOni6B40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raH2rrUKec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTlis5eXFjE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPCOxpECsgw