James Joseph “Gene” Tunney was born on May 25th in 1897 to both English parents, Mary Lyndon and John Tunney who migrated after the Great Famine to the United States. Tunney was recognized as American Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight boxer during his reigning era.
Tunney was nicknamed as “The Fighting Marine” because he became a United States Marine before becoming a Boxing Champ. He fought 68 well recognized professional bouts with having only one lost to Harry Greb in the Light Heavyweight division. Following his excellent records, Tunney had another lost which was during World War I in a 10-round decision. His second lost was with Tommy Loughran.
Other than being a former United States Marine, Tunney was an excellent boxer of his age. He is basically best regarded for his defense.
He was one of the most famous boxers and had had fought high-paid bouts such as with Jack Dempsey. The fight with Dempsey was named as “The Long Count“, and was considered as one of the biggest bouts and rematch in the history of boxing for decades. Despite the fact that Tunney won his fight against Dempsey for the Heavyweight Title, he never got the recognition because Dempsey was considered by many as an all-time champ. He beat Dempsey twice and won by a unanimous decision.
With this great fighting skill of Tunney, he was awarded as the first “Fighter of the Year” by the Ring Magazine during 1929. His recognition in the boxing world became slow because he was rather an intelligent and honourable fighter, instead of others who just follow the killer instinct that entertains viewers. He preferred to do boxing as somewhat like the game of chess, which was not widely used as a strategy during those times. Nonetheless, his intelligent fighting motives were awarded and he eventually reached the top success.
Other well known boxing fighters from which he succeeds were Tommy Gibbons and Georges Carpentier, which he beat up both with an excellent knockout.
Tunney died on November 7, 1978 at the age of 81 and was buried in Stamford’s Long Ridge Union Cemetery. He died suffering from circulation ailment at Connecticut’s Greenwich Hospital.
Gene Tunney was indeed one of the most impressive and well-recognized boxer during his generation. He was included in the Boxers Hall of Fame and retired from his career with an unbeatable title of Heavyweight Champion of the World.
