COULD TUNNEY HAVE GOT UP WITHIN 10 SECONDS?
DEMPSEY and Tunney became great friends afterward, each deferring to the other. “Gene told me he could have gotten up so I have to believe him,” said Dempsey when asked what might have happened had there been no delay in the count. Tunney always confirmed that, but perhaps out of respect for their relationship he wanted to give Dempsey his due by stating he did not know whether he could have survived the follow-up attack without those precious extra seconds.
Veteran newspaper men such as Paul Gallico and Dan Daniel, who were covering the fight from ringside, had a prevailing view of the time that Tunney wouldn’t have gotten up had the count not been delayed, and even if he did, Dempsey would have finished him. I’m not so sure.
Tunney was obviously badly dazed when going down, laying on the canvas stunned, first looking up at Barry and making eye contact with the referee when the official count reached ‘three’. That would have put the count at ‘eight’ had it started immediately.
After making eye contact, Tunney immediately looked down at the canvas. With the referee shouting the count in his ear, Tunney grabbed the ring rope and pulled himself up at ‘nine’. Tunney had prepared meticulously for what he would do in the event Dempsey hurt him. He circled the ring for the remaining couple of minutes of the round as Dempsey chased in hot pursuit, unable to catch up. By the end of the round Tunney had fully recovered.
Nothing should be read into Tunney barely beating the 10 count. Boxers have traditionally been told not to get up too fast, to take an eight or nine count before rising. Just because Tunney did not make eye contact with Barry for the first eight seconds after going down does not mean he wasn’t aware of what was going on. Had he been forced to get up if given a normal count the feeling here is he could have. Worst case scenario, without the extra time to recover it may have resulted in another knockdown soon after the first one but Tunney, who had exceptional recuperative powers, would likely have regrouped.