Jack Johnson v Gene Tunney

Tunney the master thinker and boxer by UD.

 

Not trying is not an excuse. It is evidence of a crucial lack of character. Please to show me the fight where Tunney "did not try".

I predict the usual bevy of excuses that the mere mention of His Highness Jack Johnson elicits.

 

I am not trying to make an excuse for johnson, but sometimes not trying was expected, to give the fans value for money, in fact, in those days, sometimes it was required by law, as prizefights were often outlawed. I am not sure what the circumstances of Johnson v O Brien were though.

 

Wills did not get dq'd v Sharkey for a low blow. he was put out for persistant fouling and "hitting and holding."
As for Hart not got going 8 rounds with Gene, wheres's the evidence for that.

 

The Ketchel-Johnson knockdown was faked anyway, for anyone who's interested. Look at the film, Johnson see the punch coming a mile off and is on his way down long before the punch is anywhere near landing on him.

 

Pretty much how I see it going. Good analysis.

KD's, big deal. Ketchel also happens to be quite possibly the biggest punching MW of all-time, and one of the biggest punchers ever seen in boxing. Choynski was a huge, huge puncher aswell, and this was at the beginning of Johnson's career, where he also wasn't the fully-fledged HW he became.

 

And the rest of us can predict your response.

 

In the days before boxing was fully legal, the line between "title fight", "boxing match" and "exhibition" was often blurred, on purpose, and this would account for how Johnson approached many of his fights.
I think it was Joe Jennette who actually criticised Johnson as champion for over-extending the fights and posing simply to fill in the motion picture films.
By the same token, Jennette and the other black contenders of the time often loafed through fights with each other when they mutually agreed to it, for financial or other reasons.

 

True. Ketchel was one of the best middleweights, second only to Fitzsimmons, and in terms of power.

Still, I think the KD was faked. I've watched it frame-by-frame and Johnson looks like he sees the punch coming and is well on his way down before it even comes close to "land".
Or maybe he slipped and gets caught on his way down.

 

And he beat Kaufman comfortably.