If Tunney hadnt retired?

Dempsey refused a third bout with Tunney concerned eye damage would render him blind.

Risko may have been Tunney's next opponent via his victory over Sharkey and I believe Gene wins this one via lopsided decision or late KO in mid 1928. Then perhaps Sharkey in late 1928 a decision win here.

1929 he fights Stribling and again wins comfortably via decision or late ko.

The question then becomes when does Tunney become ripe for the taking by a young boxer puncher such as Schmeling? My guess is by late 1929/early 1930 Max gets his shot and it becomes the typical scenario of a young strong near great hwt besting an older greater fighter. I would say in a fight he is winning Gene gets caught late and Schmeling wins the championship.

 

Robert, I have always maintained that had Tunney remained..he would have beaten every single man who claimed the title during the years 1930 through 1935....yep, Schmeling through Braddock..but probably would have beaten them in a shorter succession of years...like maybe both Schmeling and Sharkey in 1930....and using the style he employed vs Dempsey, most likely...capturing decisions against both men....convincing decisions. Assuming that the dynamics which propelled the remaining men to their title opportunities wouldn't be upset, then Tunney may have defended against the giant Carnera sometime in late '31...punishing Carnera for 15 rounds...maybe even forcing a late round stoppage through the accumulated punishment of Tunney's unremitting right hand. Assuming Gene were to rematch either Schmeling or Sharkey in '32 (which Tunney would have won imo), and stayed busy in the interim, and if Schmeling and Baer had met with the same result, then a defense vs Mr Baer would have transpired, with the expected result of a one sided paint job of Maxie....sort of like how Baer's bout with Loughran went....I know this, that Tunney was too fundamentally conservative in approach to let Maxie catch him with anything. The question then would be, would there be any public clamor for a Tunney-Braddock fight? Would there be any drama for a bout between the two Irishmen? If there was, I'm sure that Tunney would have won a rather routine, "another day at the office" affair on points vs James J. By 1935-'36 or so, Tunney would have bent pretty much spent in my estimation, and would have exited the game prudently before the advent of the Brown Bomber.
Just my take...my proverbial 0.02 for what it's worth.

 

Exactly,...Tunney was too smart to even hang around as much as my post suggested even...but I believe that he could have/would have beaten all his successors up until Louis...Schmeling and Sharkey would have been tough and would have presented problems, and Baer, due to stylistic imcompatibility, would have lost to the superior boxer,...but none of them were up to the task of beating Tunney,...one of the finest fighters of any age.

 

You make a bold assertion here that hangs upon a number of assumptions.

You assume that Tunney would demonstrate an aptitude for longevity that he never really demonstrated in the ring.

How many champions actually have the mind-set to achieve a long tile reign?

The answer is very few.

The mere fact that he chose to retire at his absolute best, should lead you to question whether he would have kept putting out these consistent performances as champion.

You also make the assumption that he would employ the kind of tactics that he used against Dempsey, against less dangerous fighters.

I personally think that this is unlikely, and that this style was pretty alien to him.

I am not saying that he wouldn’t have a long title reign, but it would be a rash man who bet money that he would!

 

I think Tunney's last fight is his best filmed performance. He looks like a complete fighter in that fight. It makes speculation on what he would have done next intriguing.