I read that too, Tunney identified his body attack as the main reason for his dominace of the series, and this advice supposedly came straight from Leonard.
The elitist snob part of it might be possibly jealousy at least to some extent. Reporters may have resented a boxer who in fact was more intellectually accomplished than they were, who could woe and win the heir to the Carnegie fortune, who numbered George Bernard Shaw among his friends, etc I don't think a rich and well-educated young woman would have married Tunney if there was no substance behind his image.
You're saying that asif it was viewed as bad thing during that time. To be honest, i think that part reveals a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if the author of "Unforgiveable Blackness" took offence and made up his mind rather quickly. Not that i can blame him for that, mind you, but still.
This thread is getting a tad long, and I realize that anything I say, has probably already been said, but anyway I'm going to give credence to both fighters. Harry Wills - was probably one of the greatest fighters of all time who fought during the wrong era. Unfortunately, his skin tone kept him from challenging for a world title, but he at least performed well against the very best opponents that he was given a shot against. Wladimir Klitschko - Ironically, I have to say that he was much in the same position in terms of being at the mercy of time as Harry Wills. Why, you might ask? Well, he was the ring magazine's number 1 contender from about 2000 -2003. Or somewhere thereabouts. He suffered a few discrediting losses, but was arguably a better contestant for Lennox Lewis's title than most fighters of the period were. Sure, he was badly defeated by second raters in Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster, but he managed to put together a reasonable winning streak, including victories over a few top raters, and is now a concencus best in the world. Additionally, he has a chance at unifying should he manage to keep his winning streak alive. How would these two do against one another? I have no idea. Film of Wills is limited, and honestly I have seen virtually none. I can only trust the testimonies of writers, posters and records on paper. As for Wlad, he is not particularly impressive in dispatching his most recent opponents, but he has convinced me of at least one thing........He can win fights against good fighters...... CONCLUSION: As of right now, Wills deserves to be rated higher on the basis of presitige, name recognition, and the claim to beating the best fighters that his era would allow him to face. Is this conclusion written in stone? No, but only time will tell.............