How Impressive Was Dempsey s Kd Of Tunney?

Very impressive.

Although he was older and rusty due to inactivity, Dempsey's last three fights were arguably against the best two fighters he faced in his career. While it was the old Dempsey facing Tunney and Sharkey, we did get to see flashes of the Dempsey of old. Being outfought by Sharkey, the Mauler was starting to come on with his body attack just before the controversial ending. The left hook that KOd Sharkey was quick and explosive, controversy notwithstanding. The blows that put Tunney down in the seventh round of their rematch were a beautiful exhibition of combination punching. For that brief moment, Dempsey's punches were quick, explosive, and accurate. And it was the first and only time Tunney was floored in his career. As has been noted previously, that explosion in the seventh round gave hints of what we might have seen had Tunney been facing a peak Dempsey. And the Tunney and Sharkey fights also showed that even a diminished Dempsey was game to the core and kept moving forward, always dangerous.

 

Tunney always maintained he'd have beaten the count but genuinely did not know if he would've survived Dempsey's follow up assault. I personally don't think he would've.

 

How is that? It would not have been scored without Sharkey foolishly turning away from Dempsey to complain about the latest low blow.

 

Still one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen from a fighter renowned for their fight IQ. You NEVER turn your back away from your opponent and let your guard down. ESPECIALLY if that opponent is Jack ****ing Dempsey!

 

People forget that Dempsey also nearly down Tunney near the ropes.

 

Nat Fleischer, who was at ringside, reported that Dempsey had Tunney on the verge of a knockout in the 4th round of their first fight.

 

This.

He had a paper thin resume at heavyweight. And no real shame in that. He was a light heavy who had carefully considered the move up for years. Very strategic in the path to his ascendency. And then he didn't stick around long enough for the balloon to be popped.

 

But Tunney is still looked at by boxing historians as a great fighter....

 

I never said he wasnt. I said I dont believe his chin was as tested at HW particularly as people credit him with. When Georges Carpentier who was shot and overrated to begin with is by the far the hardest puncher youve ever faced and from there the amount of punchers he faced at any weight drops dramatically then I find it hard to credit him with having this granite chin.

 

Carpentier was not a far harder puncher than Dempsey.

 

But we are talking about Tunney's reputation as having a great chin vis a vis his fight with Dempsey, so taking Dempsey out of the equation Carpentier would be the hardest puncher Tunney faced and from there his resume against punchers at any weight is extremely thin. If you are asking how impressive Dempsey's KD of Tunney was and someone answers "great considering Tunney's chin" then that would by definition reference fighters other than Dempsey and Tunney's references for having a great chin against punchers other than Dempsey are few and far between. If Dempsey is the only measuring stick of how great Tunney was Id say the jury is still out because plenty of people Dempsey dropped were able to get back up. Tunney just had the wheels to survive the onslaught.

 

The only point of my post was to correct your statement that Carpentier was a far harder puncher than anyone Tunney ever faced. If you'd have said hardest aside from Dempsey I wouldn't have responded to your post, even though I suspect Carpentier wasn't a far harder puncher than Gibbons.

 

My post didnt happen in a vacuum. If youd paid attention to the context of the discussion you would have known. To question how great Dempsey's KD of Tunney was by saying Tunney had a great chin because he got up from Dempsey's KD seems like a circular argument to me. So logically we would be looking for examples outside of Dempsey where Tunney's chin was tested and showed that it was granite. Since you felt the need to comment why dont you give us some examples outside of the Dempsey KD where Tunney showed he had an iron chin. Tell me who you think was a great puncher that Tunney fought outside of Dempsey and who also tested Tunney's chin.

At one point in his career Tommy Gibbons got one KO in seven years. He wasnt a hard puncher. Even his brother Mike admitted that. When Tommy was hunting a match with Dempsey he was fed a steady diet of retreads and has-beens for him to knock out and build up excitement which resulted in a long string of stoppages. Even Mike Gibbons said that Tommy let this go to his head and began believing he was a puncher when in fact he wasnt. Regardless, Tommy was shot and already talking about retirement when Tunney finally fought him and its doubtful he landed more than a handful of decent punches on Tunney he was so utterly dominated and clueless in that fight. Furthermore both Gibbons and Carpentier spent the majority of their careers well below 175. Were they what you would consider heavyweight punchers at any point in their career and in particularly when both were well past their prime and couldnt land anything of note of Tunney?

Otherwise this just seems like a long way of you saying you misunderstood the discussion.

 

You're the one who appears to have not paid attention. You seem to be under the impression I'm arguing that Tunney had an iron chin. I have neither argued for nor against that.

You stated "Georges Carpentier who was shot and overrated is by far the hardest puncher you've (Tunney) ever faced". I'm well aware of the subject the of thread and the content of the post you replied to with that statement, neither asks who was the hardest puncher Tunney faced aside from Dempsey. You should learn to be more precise with your language.

P.s. to anyone other than Klompton reading this thinking I'm being a d**k - I treat people how I find them. I'm always pleasant and courteous to people who are pleasant and courteous to others.