Who is the more durable heavyweight IN THERE PRIME jersey joe walcott or gene tunney?

They're about even in my book.

Walcott is more proven - he faced bigger, better punchers, even though he was knocked out by some of them.

Tunney is less proven, but was never stopped and only dropped once (by Dempsey at that). I don't buy into the "Jack was shot" excuse, because, faded or not, he sure looked dangerous trying to get Tunney out of there.

I don't think the Long Count should affect judging of Tunney's durability that much, either. Yeah, he was down for awhile, but he got up when the count said to and was clearly "good to go" when he did so. If he was lacking in durability, he wouldn't of been able to evade Dempsey for the rest of the round and fight...he would've been knocked out.

Even though it wasn't a heavyweight fight between two proper heavyweights, Greb-Tunney I is at least an indicator of Tunney's heart, if not his durability, in general. By all accounts, he took a vicious beating and still stayed in the game.

 

14-17 seconds or not, Walcott would have done exceptionally well to recover from Dempsey's onslaught.

Ted Spoon is more aware of Walcott's pre-title contention circumstances than most, but Tunney possessed a naturally solid constitution - solid feet, great anticipation of danger and smoothing over a copped punch.

 

While it is true that Walcott was only stopped by Louis and Marciano in the meaningful part of his career, it's worth pointing out that he was also floored by Charles in their second fight- and I don't believe Charles hit substantially harder than some of Tunney's major opposition. Having only suffered one knockdown in over 80 professional fights, Tunney's track record for durability is excellent. While I don't believe there is a gaping divide between the two, I think one must say that Tunney seems to have been the more durable fighter.

 

Maybe Tunney helped him out with his footwork, that should count for something.

 

The combination Dempsey hit Walcott with would have been good for a 20 count, and if Walcott did get up, he does now have fresh legs like Tunney did.

 

I would say Tunney He was only KD once in his career and fought some greats that no one talks about any more including a HW that is Forgotte in Johnny Risko in the fight befor he fought Dempsey I think Tunney even Broke his hand in the fight with Risko and still won buy a wide Margin Tunney is one guy that has a chance with any Fighter in History from Lightheavy to Heavy and if he lost the first bout he would surely have won the rematch as int hey way he prepared for Greb he took what he saw in the ring and made a fightplan in his head as to how to beat him in the rematch

 

If you watch the tape. Tunney is aware of the count and looking at the ref around " 4 ". He got up and had full ability in his legs, hence he was not out of it, rather he was just knocked down. It is very likely that Tunney beats a 10 count and moves the way we did after he got up at 14.

While the long count has questions, Dempsey is the reason it happened because he 1 ) wanted the rule of the neutral corner for the knockdown, and 2 ) Took a few seconds to remember the rule after he scored the knockdown.

I don't think Tunney gets cute and caugh twith Louis the way Wlacott did, and I do not think Louis coudl take Tunney out with one big punch. In fact I think Tunney UD's Louis.

 

Tunney beating Louis on points is a real possibility,imo.Tunney allways said he could have gotten up earlier , he never said that if he got up before 10 he would have survived.Maybe Dempsey would have nailed Tunney if Gene got inside the original 10 count,but Tunney didnt take just one punch a left hook followed by a cluster of punches put him down ,that series of punches would have been enough to finish a lot of men,maybe Walcott too.

 

Greb was the greatest middleweight of all time, and going by his resume, he's at least one of the top 10 greatest lightheavy's of all time as well. No one outside of Tunney and Tiger Flowers got the better of Greb in a series, despite Greb fighting the best line-up of Middle and Lightheavy-weights ever.

 

The starving hobo was 5 lbs. over his highest career weight when Ettore knocked him out. And 5 lbs heavier than when he fought less than 2 months prior. Unless he had a wicked case of constipation, that ain't starving.

Ettore was definitely not a big puncher.