The Art of Boxing: Gene Tunney- His Strengths and Weaknesses

Well I for one think that taints his position in history. Avoiding top named black boxers is one thing,
not fighting them because you're a racist is another. The best white fighters of the day like Ketchel
and Greb fought black fights so it wasn't like it was unheard of.

Look, Babe Ruth is my favorite ball player and he never played MLB against blacks but it was because
of MLB's stance on segregation. He DID play against black teams offseason while he was barnstorming.

 

In a way racist attitudes are irrelevant.

Some champions were virulent racists, whose careers happened not to coincide with a strong black contender.

Some had progressive opinions, but were prevented from fighting the top contenders, by the politics of the day.

I am afraid that the latter’s resume suffers more in the light of history!

 

Great video on a great fighter I'm appreciating more and more. Great boxer. fantastic movement.

 

Thanks for this!

 

Thanks for this!

Tunney is the only heavyweight champion after Sullivan that never fought a black man.

 

Tunney is always looked at as a light puncher. Certainly as per Fleischer he lacked the wallop of Jeffries, Dempsey or Fitzsimmons. However was he really thought of as a powder puff puncher? I read an article years ago written in the early 60's by one of Tunneys trainers who wrote that "Tunney right hand was as feared as Listons". Like most everything over time details become distorted.

 

I would describe him as a punishing hitter.

He was not a dynamite puncher, but it he got you rigth, then you were in trouble.

 

Really? Wow that's insane. And proves (to me, at least) that he deliberately avoided black boxers.

So guys like Fitzsimmons, Corbett and Jeffries fought black fighters in the late 1800's/early 1900's.
Interesting.

 

Tunney offered Harry Wills, the top black fighter of the 1920's a match. For whatever reason there was not a lot of talented upper weight ( light heavy to heavy ) black prize fighters in the 1920's.

There was only one lineal black light heavyweight champion from 1920-1928, and he died in 1925 ( Siki ).

There were zero black heavyweight champions from 1920-1928

So Tunney was busy with Dempsey, Greb, Gibbons, Carpentier, Risko, Renault, etc...

 

There were quite a few class black big men in the 1920's,[ Tunney began his career in 1915,] but by the time Tunney had filled out into a heavyweight in 1925 ,the likes of Mcvey dead,Langford nearly blind and going through the motions,Jeff Clark retired, Kid Norfolk slipping badly,were no longer relevant.Tunney would not go anywhere near the up and coming George Godfrey,which only left the aging[34] Harry Wills who did not want to risk his ranking status against him.

 

Godfrey didn't exactly help himself.

He made a career out of throwing fights, and this meant that he was never a standout contender.

Dempsey and Tunney were well within their rights to select other opponents.

 

Love his footwork. Might look easy, but is so hard.

 

Excellent, thank-you for sharing this