Why didn't Gene Tunney have more fights?

from what i heard his last fight was a financial disaster and thats why he retired. he beat dempsey twice, then fought heeney. i guess he tought hed be very much in demand after beating dempsey..twice. it didnt work out. anyone else heard different?

 

Tunney was educated and didn't need to fight.

He got out just at the right time.

In 1928, Tunney was married to a wealthy socialite, the former Mary "Polly" Lauder (1907- April 19, 2008). The couple lived in Stamford, Connecticut and had four children.

Mrs. Tunney's grandfather was George Lauder, Sr., a first cousin and business partner of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, founder and head of Carnegie Steel Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her father, George Lauder, Jr., was a philanthropist and yachtsman whose 136-foot (41 m) schooner once held the record for the fastest trans-Atlantic yacht passage ever made. According to a 2007 biography, Tunney promised Polly that he would quit boxing and defended his title only one more time after the second Dempsey fight, against Tom Heeney of New Zealand.[3]

 

His last bought with Tom Heeney in circa--'28 was a "Gimmie Something" fight and Gene got married to a lady who was worth a million plus herself from the family business she took over, so Gene got hitched and decided he was set in life and could move on to other things....

Gene Tunney probably would've made a return by 1930 had he lost his ass in the crash of 1929, but I guess he planned well enough to avoid being ruined....

Hell, his old foe 'Jack Dempsey' lost roughly $3 million smackers in the crash of '29... Jack wasn't fully wiped clean, but his wallet took a huge hit...

MR.BILLhuh

 

Tunney was never in love with the fight game ,he saw it as a means to an end.His last fight was a financial disaster,as has been said ,but not for him .
Rickard paid him $990445,Tunney made out a personal cheque to Rickard to bring it up to $1000,000.
Rickard caught a cold ,Tunney made a mint, married a socialite who was independently wealthy and bid the game good bye.

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Similar to Sen. John "Franken" Kerry who is hitched with the widow of the dude who owned Hunt's tomato sauce and ****.... She's nearly worth $1 billion bucks.... Yeah, Ol' Kerry cries himself to sleep that he lost the 2004 election and health care is insane to afford all alone on a middle-class income.... GEEZ!
:roflatsch

MR.BILL:hat

P.S.

At least Tunney stayed out of politricks...:hey

 

Ol' Texas Rickard croaked soon after in 1929 from an operation to have his appendix removed... He probably dicked around too long like Houdini had done and ended up poisoning himself with his own body fluid.... Many folks screwed around too long back in the old days... When your appendix is aching, you go see a surgeon and get it removed....

MR.BILLatsch:shock::hat

 

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers...MAAAAIBAJ&pg=4120,519468&dq=gene+tunney&hl=en

 

Couldn't have explain it better. Cheers

 

Tunney, as Max Schmeling said in his autobiography, was "UNIQUE"...absolutely. He was intelligent...and knew when it was time to leave the fight biz...and it was before he started going downhill, IMO...I think he could have beaten any and all of the holders of the heavy title between the time of his retirement and Joe Louis...and in the case of Joe Louis, I hold the controversial opinion that he woulod have had an excellent chance of upsetting Louis. There's just speculation that by '34 or '35 that he may have eclipsed his abilities and it would have been even more a reason to retire...but that fraternity of fighters smart/prudent enough to walk away when at the top is a rare and very small one....an elite to be sure.

 

And aside from that superficial case, there's absolutely nothing else that would be a reason to mention that ******* with the great Gene Tunney..:bbb

 

Maybe, but I see him getting upset by young hungry versions of Sharkey, Schmeling, Baer etc as well. I kinda don't buy that he retired before he ever peaked... how many guys continue to improve after theyve won two championships?

 

Agree with the above. Keep in mind, the guy had over 70 pro fights, so it isn't as if he was dying for more fights. He had his mega paydays with Dempsey, so he was already rich, and everything after that was going to be paltry by comparison. When you have become rich from boxing, have already had a lengthy career, and have just married a wealthy woman on top of it, who needs to get hit in the head anymore, and do all that hard training?

I too think his speed, footwork, punch volume, and wonderful condition probably would have earned him decisions against the next several champs who followed him. Yes, his style would have given Louis troubles as well, but, a young Louis was a lot faster and friskier than an old Dempsey, so I still think Louis does to Tunney what he did to Conn, eventually get him, but it would have been a great fight while it lasted.

Ever see that documentary where Ali says Tunney is the best of the old time fighters? Makes sense given that their styles were very similar. Tunney was a well-conditioned fleet-footed dancing master who had fast hands and could clinch just like Ali. Not an easy style to deal with.

 

True add that to the fact that Gene was also a rich man himself and if I was in his shoes would I want to go to a sweaty gym and get hit in the head every day or enjoy the fruits of the good life....Gene hit lotto and the fruits of that is his son became a US senator and he lived his life out a rich and healthy man...compare that to Ali or Ezzard Charles or even Jerry Quarry or Jimmy Young...sometimes its one punch that makes the difference

 

Excellent post :good