Had Tunney not retired when he did

Tunney's style had the potential to give Louis nightmares, think Walcott, Schmelling, Conn - nightmare nights for Louis and Tunney would bring those same issues

 

See the comments in my previous post.

Much is assumed of Tunney's focus and consistency based on two title fights.

The reality is, that his ability to maintain it is at best speculative.

This is a man who descended into alcoholism after his boxing career.

Can we assume that he would have been another Joe Louis?

 

Jack Sharkeys style also had the potential to bring Louis nightmares, but it didn't work so well once he was shot.

 

Sharkey wasn't in the class of Tunney or Schmelling and he didn't have the same defensive, countering ability or speed. I also think Tunney ages well

 

Sharkey might just have been better than both of them from the neck down!

 

Tunney took a break from boxing and worked as a lumberjack in Ontario in 1921.

 

I think he had all of that, but one thing Sharkey didn't have was the chin, and yes he was shot by then. Still interesting to watch Sharkey's defensive moves and how Louis follows through with his punches, inflicting damage despite Sharkey's best attempts to move away from the punches.

Problem for Tunney is that he would have been nearly 40 years old by the time Louis came into the picture, and would have likely looked like the Billy Conn of the second Louis fight.

Louis downs Conn with a jab at 1:15.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrwl0kvoCqg[/ame]

 

He chopped and sawed wood one winter in a Canadian logging camp, specifically to strengthen his brittle hands so they would hold up in competition, a successful strategy. (I read about this as a kid, and it was also alluded to in a 1961 SI profile on Gene.)

During his childhood, he'd play mind games with himself, deliberately passing up ice cream and other youthful pleasures when readily available, as an exercise in mental discipline and self control. Joining the USMC was a natural extension of that. While on guard duty in the service, he'd spend long quiet idle hours practicing left jabs with his Springfield rifle in his hand to build up that punch.

Gene was clearly what psychiatrists would classify today as obsessive-compulsive. After winning his rematch with Dempsey, he made up the relatively minuscule difference between his share of the proceeds and an even one million dollars to Rickard, just so he could have a photostat made of the check to frame and post in his garage.

Interesting temperament, as he got more kicks out of making opponents miss than he did out of punching them. (This positive premise of "I like making punches at me miss," contrasts favorably with Jimmy Young's negative attitude that, "I don't like to be hit!")

 

Thats true but he wasnt a former lumberjack by any stretch. It was basically an extended training camp. Kind of like calling Jim Jeffries a marathon runner because he ran and walked ridiculously long during his training camps.

 

Tunney worked as a lumberjack to strengthen himself for boxing. The other workers at the lumber camp thought he was just another lumberjack, so that's good enough for me.

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers...=4619,2260241&dq=gene+tunney+lumberjack&hl=en

 

That has got OCD written all over it!

 

Not to play armchair shrink but Tunney's troubles with booze started long after his ring career was over and likely had to do with his own unsatisfactory assimilation into the upper class world he so aspired to be part of .. as a fighter he had discipline, goals and focus ... there is nothing to be seem that shows him slipping from that focus as a professional boxer ..

 

:goodThanks for the backup U, since it's been a few decades since I read about it.

 

Not wishing to play the armchair shrink either, but people who have obsesive personalities tend to be prone to adiction.

In many ways Tunneys personality suggests that he would have retained focus. One fighter with similar obsesive tendencies who springs to mind is Rocky Marciano.

I still don't feel justified in assuming that he would have retained his focus when frankly, verry few champions have.