Who do you rate higher: SRL or Gene Tunney?

Rez:

Although, I know you were directing that post to unforgiven, I kind of agree with him. Because we don't (I think) have the films of Tunney-Greb to evaluate the performance, I can see how a reasonable person could vote for Leonard-Hearns being a better win. On paper, they are both all time great wins. But, being able to see Leonard come back from adversity and knock out an absolutely prime Tommy Hearns (who was fighting one of the best fights of his life) left an indelible impression in my brain. And, this is coming from a Hearns fan. I think Tunney's win over Dempsey is more akin to Leonard's win over Hagler. In both instances, the fighters (SRL and Tunney) fought a cautious, but perfectly executed game plan, to defeat aging fighters who would have likely beaten them if matched prime vs prime.

 

If I remember rightly, Harry Greb had lost a fight to a young Tommy Loughran and was starting to slow down a bit when Tunney registered his first convincing win over him.
Tunney had lost to Greb clearly once already, and some say had lost clearly twice (but was gifted the 2nd fight).
Conversely, Leonard figured out how to beat a PRIME UNDEFEATED Hearns during their first meeting, over those 14 epic rounds.

Having said that, it's totally debatable, because most of us would rate Greb a greater fighter than Hearns.

 

unlike the heavyweights, the competitors in the welterweight division don't get to pack on dozens of pounds while staying welters

srl is back of the top 10 for me, maybe #9

the minute he faced someone with speed, hecrumbled like a cheap deck of cards.

Hearns? He was good but whom had he fought? Looked more like a nigerian marathoner

Leonard's resume is glaringly thin as he failed to meet the Curry's the pryors, the Nunns, McCallums, Honeyghans, the Simon Browns - most of whom would have severely tested and probably tested him, had he not chickend out of them (cluck!)

pound for pound, Tunney is the much more proven fighter

 

Don't forget around 1980 Arguello was talking of fighting SRL. Add him to your list

 

Eh...Dempsey didn't look too good in the Sharkey bout. He got lucky.

 

Oh Red LOL

 

Yes, Dempsey, for the most part, did look terrible vs Sharkey. up until those crucual last few moments of the 7th round,...and that was no luck, that was the old, still "deadly as a viper" Jack Dempsey, erasing the deficit of the previous 6 1/2 rounds like a great fighter is able to do.

 

He may have hit Sharkey low on the inside it`s hard to tell. Sharkey certainly thought so and he was foolish enough to take his eyes off of his opponent. Dempsey showed he still had power but he was lucky because he hit a guy who wasn`t looking.

 

How many great/notable ko's in boxing history have come about when the other man "wasn't looking"? I think there have been so many occasions when a smart power broker caused the other guy to "not be looking" for the coup de grace....there's no such thing as being "lucky"...