Gene Tunney, Why isn’t he higher on the all time list?

The elderly disabled fathers kitten once beat me in sparring but i was leading on points before dislocating my shoulder and quitting.

 

Good point. It's "Wills", not "Willis", by the way. Sorry, I'm kind of a nitpicker when it comes to the spelling of names!

 

I think Gene is justly ranked. Not for the reasons mentioned so far, but because the "long count" should have lost.

 

Fair. I thought his name was Willis for years when I was younger and I often reflexively make the mistake. Same with Byrd who I thought was Bryd.

 

Come on, he knocked down Dempsey in the next round and had him practically out of the fight by the end of the 10th.
Nevermind that he staggered him in the corner in the 4th and was generally pelting him with straight lefts and rights in every other round. The long count controversy is overblown, knockdowns don't win fights.

 

Most lists I've seen have him top 20 LHW.

 

Honestly, it's mostly becuse he's just not famous enough I'd reckon. Old school boxers don't get much love from people my age (20's) but this will only get worse with time. Also, he's overshadowed by the greatness of Sugar Ray Robinson. In that most of the time when Tunney's mentioned, it's in regards to Robinson and how good he was. But chances are, if you've seen any Tunney fights, you'll know he's the real deal.

 

Tunney looks magnificent on film. I rate him very highly @LHW and I think he's underrated at HW. Perhaps one of the reasons he's not rated higher is how turned off the Boxing fan was to him. All his book reading about Shakespeare and whatnot and his beating of Dempsey which further alienated him.

 

Because he didn't do much at HW and at LHW he has Spinks, Moore, and Charles to deal with. It gets double hard for him for those who compare CW to LHWs before CW existed. Evander's The Real Deal in both divisions.

I think Tunney is justly rated by most, some see him as GOAT LHW and while I don't I don't think those folks are crazy. Most folks set him just below Ezzard somewhere and he does make the top ten HW because there's been more then ten HWs who did more at HW.

Even as a step up guy, like CWs included, anyone who stepped up to HW and won a or the title, Tunney rates but it's hard to say top spots because guys like Ezzard and Evander. I might even rate Usyk over Tunney by the time Usyk is finished.

Undisputed CW is hard to argue with when all you can say is look at dude's resume doe given Tunney never bothered to be LHW champ. Undisputed HW champion with two prime top champions in his resume, also kinda hard to argue with when your sole name is Dempsey, aged, and long counted.

 

A poor man's Henry Maske.

 

Are you getting Tunney and/or SRR confused with someone else? They fought in different weight divisions and different eras. I've never heard anyone mention Tunney in regard to how good SRR was.

 

Yeah I can’t work this one out either. Must just be confusion with another fighter. I mixed up Hearns & Leonard when talking about one of Benitez’s fights the other day, it happens.