Tunney - Wills who ducked who?

Tunney was a nobody at heavyweight, at the time.

 

So, a guy who had been universally touted as the best challenger to the throne for years, and was getting on in age thought that he didn't have to prove himself yet again to earn a title shot, while heavyweight non-entities like Gibbons and Firpo and Carpentier got shots, thought it beneath him to jump through another hoop against an unproven heavy?

What a shocker.

 

Had Wills been been promised the same title shot at Dempsey for beating any other opponents? I wonder if it was a case of him being duped in the past.

If it was a legit contract for the winner to fight Dempsey, that would be interesting.

 

I really don't know the answer to this question, but I find it difficult to believe that Wills would turn
down $250,000 to fight ANYONE. That's a HUGE amount of money in 1926. No way he walks away
from that dough...unless Tunney was allowed to bring hand grenades into the ring. Even then he'd
take the $$$.

 

The Ring rankings had him #3
behind #1 Dempsey (champion) and #2 Wills.

 

Tunney was a name fighter, but he had done nothing much at heavyweight at that point. Same as Tommy Gibbons, who was ranked #3 the previous year, who wasn't a heavyweight either and had achieved really nothing above 175 lbs. It was a manipulation, not to allow Wills a title bout with Dempsey.

 

True.
It's all a manipulation anyway. Rankings, champions, #1 contenders. Harry Wills was part of it too.
If Wills was truly on the outside, no one would have heard of him.

 

Ring Magazine annual ratings.

1924. Champion Dempsey. Wills at #2 at heavy, Tunney at #1 at light heavy
1925. Champion Dempsey. Wills #1 at heavy, Tunney #3 at heavy
1926. Tunney champion at heavy, Dempsey #2.

Wills had his chance for the fight with Tunney. He balked. He also avoided the top black heavyweight of the time in George Godfrey, so that's two ducks for Wills.

While Jack Johnson's antics and title reign made it tough for top-ranked black contenders, Wills blew chances by not risking more. Back in the 1920's there wasn't a huge size difference between light heavy and heavy.

 

If I remember correctly, Tunney's challenge had taken place at the moment when there was a good chance that Dempsey would be forced to defend his title against Wills (I'm not sure, but I think it was when the NYSAC insisted that Dempsey must sign for a bout with Wills, or he'd not be allowed to fight in their state). So Wills chose to wait until it was resolved, rather than be distracted with yet another "elimination" bout, vs somebody who hadn't proven himself at heavyweight yet.

 

I actually have a lot of sympathy fo Wills decision not to take this fight.

He had fought multiple title eliminators, with a the promise of a title shot if he won, and it never materialised.

He probably concluded in the end, that the powers that be were just going to match him against the best white contenders, untill they got he result that they wanted.

Qute reasonably he decided to stand on his ranking, and insist upon his rights.

 

What year was it that the Wills vs Dempsey fight "contract" was signed?

 

By the middle 1920s, Harry Wills had been a top heavyweight for a decade. I believe that even if Wills accepted a bout with Gene Tunney and beat him, there still wouldn't have been any guarantee that he would received a shot at the world heavyweight title. After all, there weren't any black fighters who fought in a world heavyweight bout for more than twenty years after Jack Johnson was dethroned by Jess Willard in 1915.

- Chuck Johnston

 

While that is true, Only Wills was viewed as championship material in those 20 years. As stated he didn't' even fight fellow black contender Godfrey, who without handcuffs I think defeats Wills.

Wills simply did not take the risks he needed to.