It's been awhile since I've (actively) played any of my numerous boxing sims, and that's a shame - I've got a strong interest in the history of boxing, and we are fortunate to have a number of really well-done sims available to us these days. So I decided to take a short break from the 1919 Season Ticket Baseball project and re-familiarize myself with what I feel are the three best cards-and-dice boxing simulations available today: Championship Boxing, Glory Days Boxing and Legends of Boxing 2. (Apologies to those of you who are Title Bout II fans - in my opinion the current iteration of the game is not up to the standard of the original TB, which for many years I felt was the best sports sim ever invented.)
When I try a new boxing simulation, I almost always begin by running a bout between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney - partly this is just out of historical interest, but mostly it's because it provides a nice "clash of styles" that gives a sim a chance to show off what it can do. How do the ratings and gameplay capture the contrast between Dempsey's pressure and Tunney's defense and counter-punching? How does it provide a path to victory for both men (yes, I know that Tunney won both real-life fights between them, but Dempsey had been inactive for more than three years by 1926 and the ratings in all of these games are designed to represent "Prime" performance)? So, for this re-familiarization tour, I decided to run this matchup twice (over fifteen rounds this time) with each of the three sims and see what happens, both in terms of the results and my feelings about the engines themselves. Between the ropes we go, then . . .
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| Jack Dempsey |
Legends of Boxing 2
Bout 1: Tunney seemed to have the better of the action, as Dempsey was hampered in the later rounds by a deep cut around his right eye inflicted by a sharp jab in the 8th, but the Mauler landed the two biggest punches of the bout (stuns in the 2nd and 13th). Perhaps that was enough to sway the opinion of two of the judges, as the decision came down as the ultra-rare majority draw (143-144, 143-143, 144-144)! Tunney’s camp, looking at the 83-63 CompuBox numbers, was understandably unhappy after the fight. [scorecard]
Bout 2: The rematch was no less controversial - Tunney gets stunned by hooks in the 5th and 10th rounds, AND suffers point deductions for head butting in both the 10th and 13th, yet still gets the nod over Dempsey in a split decision (143-142, 143-144, 145-140). CompuBox again favored The Fighting Marine (76-67), but manager Doc Kearns could be heard yelling at departing referee Dave Barry, “How could my man land the bigger shots, and fight the cleaner fight, and still lose?” [scorecard]
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| Gene Tunney |
Championship Boxing
Bout 1: Remember that part where I told you how rare an event a majority draw is? Yeah, well, forget I said that. Dempsey knocked Tunney to the canvas a minute into the fight and, by the time a bad gash had opened over Gene's left eye as a result of a clash of heads in the 6th, it appeared that Jack might be on his way to a fairly comfortable win. But Tunney rallied to win the next four rounds fairly convincingly and the fight went into the final five rounds hanging in the balance yet again. There still wasn't much to choose from as the bell rang for the 15th with both fighters tired; things got bloody in the final minutes as Dempsey began to leak from a cut over his right eye as a result of a Tunney hook, and then from below the left eye after another collision of heads. Did the blood sway the judges in what was otherwise an even round? We will never know, but two of the three arbiters gave the 15th to Tunney, resulting in another majority draw (142-142, 143-143, 143-141 Dempsey). This time, the punch stats favored the man from Colorado by a count of 66-54. [scorecard]
Bout 2: Perhaps somewhat chagrined at being asked to put on the gloves for the fourth time in a couple of days. the two men started slowly this time, with almost no leather finding a landing place in the first two rounds - Dempsey was particularly frustrated by Tunney's defense as he repeatedly found only air with his attempted blows. Affairs got moving in the 3rd and 4th, though, as both men began to warm to the task and land scoring punches, and in the 5th Tunney had clearly began to take control as he landed more punches and with more intent. This seemed to get Dempsey's attention, as he came out firing in the 6th. A hard hook and a follow-up cross visibly wobbled Tunney, and when Jack jumped in and landed another big punch that sent Gene careening into the ropes, referee Dave Barry jumped in to wave off Dempsey can call and end to the fight. It might have been a little sudden, and a little controversial with only 0:30 left in the round, but Dempsey was the winner by a TKO at 2:32 of the 6th. [scorecard]
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| Dempsey-Tunney I - 23 September 1926 |
Glory Days Boxing
Bout 1: Tunney came out of the gate slowly in the this match and, other than a big 2nd round where he landed quite a few blows and appeared briefly as if he might have his opponent in a spot of bother, Dempsey scored regularly and appeared to have built something of a cushion on the scorecards over the first ten rounds. But Jack did get stopped in his tracks by a Tunney cross early in the 10th, and this turned out to be a harbinger of things to come . . . and come soon. The 11th opened with a flurry of blows from both men and blood began to trickle from Tunney's nose; but Dempsey decided not to press for an advantage and, after taking some stiff counterpunching with a minute left in the round, found himself on the receiving end of a hard, straight jab that sent him onto his backside for a flash knockdown with twenty seconds left in the the round. This was the opening that Gene needed to get back into the contest, and he won the next two rounds; Dempsey steadied the ship with a strong 14th, but Tunney closed the fight with a big flurry that pushed the final stanza into his column and that was the edge he needed to win a split decision victory (143-142, 142-144, 143-142). [scorecard]
Bout 2: The final bout in the series started quite differently from the rest - Tunney knocked Dempsey to the canvas in both the 1st and 2nd rounds and consolidated that advantage over the next three rounds. But, the puncher always has a chance . . . and it was Dempsey's turn in the 6th as a big combination dropped Tunney to the floor for a count of 6 in the final thirty seconds of the round. The timing gave the New Yorker a chance to gather his faculties and he held his own for the next three rounds before, improbably, dropping Dempsey for the third time in the fight just before the bell in the 10th. Surely, with a two- knockdown advantage and only five rounds to go, Gene had it in the bag, right? Halfway through the 13th round, Dempsey landed another combo that put Tunney down and this time, when Gene got up at the count of 6, the Mauler was all over him - a huge succession of shots followed and the referee had no choice but to jump in and end the bout at 1:30 of the 13th. [scorecard]
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