What's the contervisty about Jack Dempsey/Gene Tunney 2 ?

It was a good cry baby story, but look at the replays, Tunney was starring at the ref and easily gets up at 7 if he had to, but he did not, so he did not!

Sure the ref was wrong not to make Tunney step back when he decked Dempsey, but hey this proper boxing, and proper boxers do not cry, so Dempsey needed to deal with it and get over it!

And because he was quite classy, I think he did.

A lot of 21st century fighters would do worse than follow that sort of fighter, who was hard but classy.

 

I thought I had made this point ,but obviously not clear enough for Klompton,I hope you have done a better job Janitor :good

 

Dempsey never made any complaints about Tunney ,they grew to be firm friends and Dempsey supported Tunney's son in his campaign as a Senator.Tunney did make some remearks after their first fight ,complaining about Dempsey's use of the rabbit punch.

 

This is uncategorically false. Within a year Dempsey renewed a scathing attack on Tunney that he had startd just before their second fight claiming the second fight was fixed and that Tunney was a mob connected fighter via his association with Billy Gibson and Max Boo Boo Hoff.

[url]http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/wail1100_booboo.htm[/url]

That articles details some of the story.

 

I think initially the controversy was around the time Tunney spent on the floor, but as time has gone on I believe Dave Barrys handling of the Dempsey knockdown is the main focus of the controversy. The handling of Tunneys knockdown is perfectly in line with the rules and Barry was correct to wait til Dempsey was in a neutral corner before starting his count. His inability to adhere to those rules for both fighters is where the conspracists have the problem.

 

............Heroes are hard to let go. Everyone wanted so desperately for Dempsey to win that some sort of "yeah, but IF......" excuse had to be made.

 

anyone can say there excuses but to have the ref pressure ,grab,yell and all but ignore a count entirely for one fighter then to have him start fast immediate count when dempsey barely touched the floor,with tunney not more then a foot from dempsey almost center of the ring ,its outrages nothing was done about the robbery,you cant call it an excuse when the ref did all but pun ch dempsey himself

 

:blood

 

Tunney was clear-eyed enough to get up in time before a straight 10-count; as the cerebral fighter he was, he properly waited to get up at 9. The count is ultimately the ref's and the ref's only.

Tunney was the rightful winner.

 

The controversy was that Tunney kicked American icon Dempsey's ass.

The handling of the knockdowns was screwy and Dempsey had the right to call it poor officiating, but that doesn't change the fact that he got pasted.

 

If you watch Boxings Greatest Knockouts (a video from the 80s) they put a clock on the count. Tunney was looking up following the refs count after seven/eight seconds.

 

You havent shown any scathing attack on Tunney in this article,Ive read 5 books on Dempsey ,one of them his autobiography,none of them mention this attack please provide evidence of it and for your sweeping statement.For your information Capone lost a bundle on the first Dempsey Tunney fight ,and was quoted in the Newspapers ,saying "I should have known better than to bet against a kid from New York".

 

That suggests that he would have beaten the count but might well have been in la la land when he got up.

Hard to say how it would have unfolded but if Jack Dempsey had a chance to win the fight that was it.