What if Tunney hadn't retired at 31

Tunney could certainly have kept his title for a few more years. He was a very accomplished fighter,skillwise. He would have beaten Schmelling,Sharkey,Baer,Carnera.

 

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You seem to have ducked the question .. as a puncher ?

 

Carnera wasn't a great puncher but with the sheer bulk he had he could have scored plenty of legit KOs against second-raters even with his push-punching. I don't know. Often I see the smaller guys fold against the bigger ones, not from any particularly shocking punch but the general weight of the opponent. It's weird but it just happens. Like Herbie Hide.

 

I am under no illusion that he was an all time puncher, or one of the best of his era.

I think that his size for the era, combined with the large amount of padding on his record, is sufficient to explain his knockout record.

 

I think Sharkey could have beaten Tunney around 1928-31, not a certainty but a 50-50 thing. Jack more talent, Gene more brains.