The Sweet Science

I think I would have to look at their accomplishments in context (was Tunney asked to lecture about Shakespeare solely because he was Gene Tunney or did his understanding impress people?) so I couldn't comment on the actual differences with any degree of authority. What I can comment on is the perceived differences and those favor Tunney because the activities Tunney engaged in, like the study of the classics, and the company he kept, like pen pal George Bernard Shaw, are considered of a higher intellectual cache than Ali's.

As to Darwin that was in a way that I probably didn't express properly my point. Ali was not stupid, he simply never bothered to learn. Richard Feynman supposedly had an average iq. And Lionel Messi is probably, if asked to compete in athletic test like the decathlon, pretty mediocre. That is a matter of inclination more than application though.

 

There are different types of intelligence to consider.

Ali had superb, all-universe comedic timing, and could improvise within his well-known shtick as well as any comedian/actor could ever hope to do. If that's considered criteria for intelligence, then he's certainly got to be in the discussion.

Then again, if we rate intelligence simply as a matter of classical knowledge, then let's consider that Ricardo "Finito" Lopez was pretty well-read (favoring Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Herman Hesse, among others).

Either way, I'm with McGrain...Tunney isn't the automatic choice for this category.

 

I think I get where you are going. Anyway I'll stand by Euwe, who was a doctorate in mathematics as well as a chess world champion and Edwin Hubble who was one of the greatest astrophysicist of the 20th century.

 

Ali, too, had a very famous intellectual pen pal -- Bertrand Russell, a Nobel Prize winner in literature who is also considered one of the top minds in math, logic and philosophy of the 20th century.

They met before the Clay-Cooper fight and the boxer asked Russell -- he had no idea who the man was -- who he thought would win. Russell responded that he held Cooper in high esteem but opined that Clay would win. Clay said something along the lines of "Well then you aren't as dumb as you look."

Informed of who Russell was, and that he had just insulted one of the great minds of the time, Ali wrote Russell a letter of apology and they struck up a friendship. They continued to correspond until Russell's death almost 10 years later.

 

Russell is a great philosophical and mathematical mind, but it's always ****ed me off that he and Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize in literature, when there were so much better writers around who never got one. I've read Russell's short stories and they are nothing special. Sometimes the academy can't find a way to properly honor someone they like so they give them a Nobel Prize in literature, except in these cases it means guys like Vladimir Nabokov, Ezra Pound, or James Joyce got snubbed. They gave an early award to the historian Mommsen instead of Tolstoy.

One thing, which hasn't been mentioned about Tunney is that he wrote an autobiography. Writing a book should be a sign of some intellectual acumen. And the Klitschko brothers, aside from having PHDs also speak four or five languages. Let's not forget that.

 

He held two patents . Bone Crusher Smith is said to be an intelligent fella.

 

Tunney was a snob who made sure that in his leisure moments he was always photographed with a classic book in hand .In later years he admitted he alienated the fight crowd and the public in general, by his condescending attitude.
I've seen no evidence he was intellectually superior to many other boxers. I know one guy who possibly fits in this discussion but I'm not going to name him because it will only bring his chief hater into action !

 

Yes Czyz has a high IQ, for whatever that is worth.

 

Tunney:rofl

 

So ... Wepner?