If you criticize Tunney for not facing any BIG heavyweights

"Sorry, but Wills was past it, Godfrey never did enough, and Sharkey is no better of a defense than Heeney."

You are correct about Wills, and from the perspective of 1928 you may even have been right about Sharkey and Godfrey, but hindsight is 20/20 and it tells us that Sharkey and Godfrey were in fact far more dangerous contenders than Heeney.
Truthfully, I think it was understood in 1928 that Sharkey and Godfrey were better, but Tunney was allowed to select his opponent and he selected the least dangerous. Prudent, but it doesn't help his resume.

 

A lot of people criticise the choice of Heeney as a challenger in hindsight but the fact is that at that snapshot in time he was absolutely the most logical challenger.

Tunney did not know that Jack Sharkey would go on to win the title after he retired.

 

Probably between 195-203lbs as he said he left training camp at those weights but bulked up to 212lbs.

 

No way.

Nobody pre 1980 ever filled out naturaly from 160 lbs to 200 lbs after their 22nd birthday.

Just dosnt happen.

 

1. Nope
2. Nope
3. Nope
4. Nope

All i'm saying is that in terms of size, they were very similar.

 

Byrd was already at 169lbs at 22. He said himself that he left training camp at 195lbs and 203 lbs on two different occasions. Why is that so hard to believe anyway? The man is one of the few succesful small guys who was able to bulk up without much loss of speed and stamina; you should embrace him considering your points of view.

 

jack Sharkey had one of his classic "off nights"(which happened alot) agains tom heeney.....and most observers thought sharkey won the fight. it was ruled a draw.......no rematch. why is this??

tunneys manager publicly admitted they would NOT fight george godfrey. they would refuse to fight him. historians i have talked to like kevin smith and others have informed me tunney indeed did avoid godfrey and gains.


George godfrey and jack sharkey were ranked higher in the Ring Magazine rankings than heeney, but fat heeney got the shot instead.

ever seen tom heeney on film? O BOY does he look awful. perhaps you shouldnt see the film because you might be disgusted. heeney was a joke and tunney knew it.


Jack sharkey and godfrey would have a real live chance at beating tunney. that is if godfrey was allowed to fight without the cuffs(which he had too in the majority of his losses, like to renault and risko)

 

I've never really criticized Tunney for not facing "BIG" heavyweights, personally. Still, I suppose it does leave a bit of a question mark over his historical head that he didn't. This criticism can also be applied to Marciano, as his detractors so enthusiastically do, but since he did go 5-0 with 5 knockouts against opponents weighing over 210 and soundly defeat a 6'2", 213 pound elite contender, he at least rates ahead of Tunney in this respect.

 

To be honest, Liston looks a little leaner in every photo. Look at the tiny roll on Byrd's cup in his photo vs. Wlad.

Byrd looks like he is around 10 lean lbs. lighter in my opinion. Byrd wouldn't have much trouble making the cruiserweight limit without cutting. I think Liston would have to cut weight to make it to 200.