What makes an ATG?

[brocktonblockbust]

Can you name the worthy black challengers during Tunney's HW title reign?

No one can because they weren't given a shot and stayed in obscurity.

All I know is that blacks are generally stronger and more athletic than whites (their testosterone levels are higher on average, it's science). So if you're not competing against black men, you're not fighting the best fighters you can. Gene Tunney never fought the best fighters he could have.

this may indeed be true. And if so then Rocky Marciano sure did fight the best black boxers that were out there at the time

[SlimTrae]

As a black man: I don't get downing Tunney for what was common in his day. The last time I checked Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins and a few other blacks have lost to dare I say, white guys.

[Master]

The economic conditions mean that the poorest people go into boxing Irish, Jews, Italians, Mexican and Blacks.

Skin colour does not make a great fighter.

[goti71]

The economic conditions mean that the poorest people go into boxing Irish, Jews, Italians, Mexican and Blacks.

Skin colour does not make a great fighter.

Clear as water; it's a matter of statistical probability.

[Beanflicker]

Skin colour does not make a great fighter.

No but it does mean (on average) a higher quality of athlete.

Black people have largely dominated the sport of boxing (especially the HW division) since they were given the opportunities they deserved. Why would anyone think the Dempsey/Tunney era would be any different?

To me it's a tainted era and I don't put much stock into those guys. People like to talk about how "protected" guys are today and how they don't take the fights they should.

[SlimTrae]

I undertand it in theory, but technically speaking, then a guy like Benny Leonard could he have been overated since he didnt fight many Mexicans- who dominate the smaller weight classes?

[Beanflicker]

I undertand it in theory, but technically speaking, then a guy like Benny Leonard could he have been overated since he didnt fight many Mexicans- who dominate the smaller weight classes?

For sure, and he probably is overrated.

When you become a boxing fan who decides to go back and learn about boxing's yesteryears, we all get the same lines fed to us. Stories about how great this guy and that guy was, how much tougher everyone was, how everybody fought for the love of boxing and fought all the best opposition, ect ect. There's a lot of truth in there I'm sure, but there's also a lot of bullshit. The problem is most people are scared shitless in actually going against the grain, researching and actually forming their own opinions. And frankly, most don't want to, because their heads are full of dreamy nostalgic visions of a "better time", and to suggest that a guy might not have been all he was cracked up to be is like pissing on the bible or the quran.

[Beanflicker]

If you want to talk specifically about the analogy you made though, boxing was a relatively new art in Mexico at the time of Benny Leonard brought over from Cuba, and Mexico wasn't producing the kind of fighters like obviously it became known for later on.

In the days of Gene Tunney and Dempsey, there were a ton of black boxers who were (generally) athletically superior, filled with anger from the way they had been and continued to be treated by white society, and a desire to break out of their impoverished beginnings.

[Beanflicker]

Can you name the worthy black challengers during Tunney's HW title reign?

No one can because they weren't given a shot and stayed in obscurity.

All I know is that blacks are generally stronger and more athletic than whites (their testosterone levels are higher on average, it's science). So if you're not competing against black men, you're not fighting the best fighters you can. Gene Tunney never fought the best fighters he could have.

this may indeed be true. And if so then Rocky Marciano sure did fight the best black boxers that were out there at the time

Yes and that's why the Rock is an ATG HW legend and a true warrior of the sport.