Roy Jones v Gene Tunney @175

Tunney had very underrated power, particularly in his right cross. The hardest punch Dempsey was ever hit with came from Tunney (According to Dempsey), it was a bodyshot in Dempsey-Tunney 2.

Having said that, I do believe Jones had the better power - Jones could really load up on his shots and was a genuine power puncher with either fist.

BUT - I think it's undisputable that Tunney has a better (much better in fact) combination of chin and power. Tunney was extremely durable, with incredible spirit and willpower - He actually used to "train" his mental strength by staring straight at the sun!

Jones has a couple of one punch knockouts at lightheavy, which really don't bode well for the case of his chin.

Jones had the faster feet, but Tunney was the better conventional boxer, with good handspeed and superb timing. If Jones boxed safe he could certainly take a few rounds, even though Tunney was a defensive marvel, but once he committed himself to doing damage I think Tunney would capitalize and hurt him with his sneaky but oh-so-powerful right hand off of the 1-2.

In the end, I think Tunney grinds Jones down and stops him late with a big shot, or takes a close a decision. His fighting spirit would see him strengthen down the stretch and shake off the sort of shots that would rattle his adversary.

 

Well for a start, every single fighter that ever fought Tunney had to take massive punishment at some stage. Jones was amazingly fast, but he was not Superman. Tunney will land very hard at some stage, in any fight. There is no way that Tunney could be avoided for 15 rounds.

Why would there be very little exchanges? Jones likes to move in and out of range and throw quite a lot of punches. Tunney, who is naturally bigger and stronger, is lightning quick also but he hits hard and straight, and regularly too. The more i think about this fight, the less chance that i give Jones. In all honesty his only real chance is to hope that his freakish speed gives him an advantage, but Tunney was just far too good to be dominated at light heavyweight.

Look it another way. How could (an admittedly very good) light heavyweight, whose chin is questionable at light heavy and almost certainly poor to Glass at Heavyweight level, stand up to fighter whose power and chin was proven at heavyweight level? This is a great fight and Jones certainly is good enough to make it interesting, but you could not objectively make Gene Tunney anything but the favourite could you?