What would have been the result if Sharkey hadnt taken his eye off the ball against Dempsey,he was leading on all cards ,say he outpoints Jack ,[who thought he was in danger of being kod],ansd goes on to meet Tunney how would it have turned out?Given that prior to the Dempsey koSharkey had posted wins overGodfrey in 10 Wills in 13 ,[he fouled out to save a beating],Mctigue in 12 and Maloney ,[his Boston rival]in 5.Sharkey went onto draw with Heeney,drop a dec to Risko dec Ko Christner and |Stribling and ko Loughran in 3 after the Dempsey debacle ,so could he ,on his best night ,have beaten "The Marine"?
I think Tunney would win a 15 round decision. He matches up better with Dempsey stylistically, but i think he'd give Sharkey a lot of trouble with his speed and most important, his technical skill. It would certainly give his resume at heavyweight a bit of a boost.
It depends on whick version of Jack Sharkey turned up for the fight. When Sharkey was at his best he was very good, but when han had one of his many bad days he was mediocre. Woller
Sharkey was very good when he was on form, but Tunney was better. I'd expect Tunney to win very convincingly.
As Woller posted, it would be very interesting if Sharkey comes up with one of his good performances, but I think Tunney edges him even if Sharkey is on. Tunney could work the body with the best of them and Sharkey did not react well to getting it in the gut, so I would expect to see another side of Tunney in this fight. He was more than just a fancy-Dan jab and move type.
Tunney, being the more disciplined of the two would have won a unaimous 15 round decision with Sharkey having his moments, but few and far in between. Tunney would have the jab working all night of course, but the right would have been used very effectively and he would have hurt Sharkey with it. I always have thought that Tunney would have stopped Dempsey in their first fight if it had been set for more than 10 rounds. There wouldn't have been a rematch, and no Long Count. If there was a rematch after he had stopped Dempsey, Tunney would have ko'ed him again.