Why did Tunney never fight a black fighter?

He did offer to fight Wills I think Ive read...but Wills actually turned him down.

I dont think Tunney would have fought someone like Wills if it wasnt worth it and it likely was at the time he made the offer.

 

And if a black fighter had said "Some of us of the darker persuasion were hoping Johnson to retain the title," that would be different, I suppose.

 

Sounds like Ali in the mid-sixties when he first joined the Muslims.

 

I don't care either way. Unless you degrade the man because of his race, or degrade the race in general, it's not a problem with me. The whole damn sport was founded on ethnic rivalries. I think many of us have outgrown that impetus and prefer the greater exhibitor of skill, talent and will. However, I can not condescend to those who in the past have based their allegiance on ethnic identification so long as they did not resort to violence outside of the ring or degradation of another group as a principle beyond the sporting realm. It really is not even a fine line.

 

Simple speculation, but as a very insightful, intelligent man he probably didn't want to get into any unnecessary trouble. Because of the times, Tunney did not need to fight black opponents in order to rise up higher in the rankings, tough fighters such as Kid Norfolk for example, when he could fight Greb, Gibbons or Carpentier instead. He did, as stated above, challenge the number 1 ranked heavyweight Harry Wills to a match so that he would be able to fight Dempsey for the title, but as it turns out, he did not need to fight him.

Tunney planned out his career from the beginning and did not take any risks unless there was a high reward included.

 

You nailed it S...
P.S. Tunney was only 13 years old in 1910, besides...

 

I cant lie...I am 31..when i was a kid and first started following boxing..you would hear comedians make jokes about white boxers (chris rock did it) and also they where generally underdogs..

Hence I did have a tendency to rote to for white fighters if all things where equal. In other words, if i turned on espn, or usa tuesday night fights..and a black guy and white guy where fighting..and i knew nothing of either...i would tend to rote for the white guy. Of course many of my favorit fighters where black..and i would never have rooted for a anyone against foreman, or holyfield, or Jones.

But I did have that bit of I guess racism. I dont really feel that way anymore..but im sure its still their on some level.

 

Who should he have fought? There weren´t many blacks among the best around his weightclass at the time. Wills, Norfolk, Siki ... who else?

 

There has been some speculation that Tunney held certain elitist and racist atitudes. Max Schmeling among others hinted at it. It is not just that he never fought a black opponent, he never had a black sparring partner either.

I do think that Tunney would have fought Harry Wills if he had been offered the fight as an eliminator for a shot against Dempseys title. By that time he would probably have won also.

 

Tunney was very smart and choose his route to the title carefully ... I'm not a scholar of the light heavyweight division in the 1920's but he did not go out of his way to figh Kid Norfalk for sure ... he was ready to fight Wills which would have been interesting even though he would have been close to ten years younger ... let's just say it's strange that in his entire career he never fought a black fighter ..

 

Never wore black trunks either, or had a black cat.

 

Boucher, I'm not sure you're right about the black cat Boucher, I'm sure I read somewhere...