If Dempsey Had Prime Body..?

Based on his nude pics, Dempsey always had a prime body.

 

I’ve gone back & forth on this one so many times over the years. I usually fractionally lean to Dempsey. Very tough call.

As with Foreman & Holmes, it’s a shame two fighters born so close together hit their stride at different times.

 

Prime Dempsey would’ve finished Tunney

 

I don’t know how you’re so certain. If it were just the first fight, I would understand. Dempsey was rusted & possibly ill going into the ring…but Tunney trounced him more or less as convincingly at the second time of asking as well. The entire thing is eerily similar to the two bouts between Larry Holmes & Earnie Shavers.

Tunney, to me, proved in their second fight that he would be a match for any Dempsey.

 

Seeing as a past prime Dempsey, dropped Tunney hard and very well may've finished him off without The Long Count, I'd favor Dempsey to finish the job here.

 

It’s the only round he won out of twenty, though. & the only time he ever had Tunney in any kind of trouble. I do perhaps slightly favour Dempsey myself, mind.

 

Because I find the Dempsey of their second encounter THAT unimpressive, and Tunney didn’t look like much of a marvel either compared to his other performances. He had a minimalist output, battering Jack with consistent but basic 1-2 spam. Even when Tunney didn’t do anything Dempsey was still looking as slow as he ever did even when compared to the first Tunney fight and the Sharkey fight. I just found him THAT unimpressive, and I don’t think it had much to do with how much better Tunney was because Tunney didn’t really do that much to neutralize Jack.

And in spite of all of this, the worst version of Jack was still able to catch Gene and knock him down. This is a bad sign against peak Dempsey.

 

I used to afford Tunney the stylistic advantage over any version of Dempsey but changed my tune when better informed on the prime beast that Dempsey was.

Atop that appreciation, it was also obvious that a fighter of Dempsey’s ilk, even if only just past prime (let alone considerably past prime), loses a LOT in his own overall effectiveness.

Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson might be reasonable comparisons in so far as citing any point beyond their primes as representing quite a drop off from the acute quality of their prime selves.

Not exactly ALL or nothing prospects but closer to ALL or a whole lot less in terms of somewhat more demanding styles.

Prime Dempsey, with his very best speed, footwork and stamina could see Gene off early to mid rounds I think.

If not that early, if not at all, Dempsey could still go the full 10 rounds so much better (carrying the punch to potentially end it thru to the end) than he did when they actually fought.

The KD of Tunney in the rematch was an anomaly at that stage of their careers - Gene caught napping but it did prove that even an older Dempsey could badly hurt Tunney IF he could connect.

Given the prime version of Dempsey, Jack’s chances of connecting with definitive punches increase dramatically and, in fact, translate to very likely, just imo.

 

Prime Dempsey would take out Tunney much in the fashion he did Carpentier, maybe a couple rounds later. A few things might help... a 15 round limit (to force Tunney to pace himself a bit more), a dry ring (unlike Philly), and a ref who knows how to count to ten at the proper pace.

 

It would be hard for me to pick against young, hungry, pre-media star Dempsey in this fight.

 

I’d be putting big coin down on Tunney if you guys set the odds!

 

“If you wanna lose your money, then bet on Tunney”.

Straight off the top of my head, that was.

 

Where their careers go if Tunney won would be an interesting thought exercise.