Then there was Gene Tunney who was truly a gentleman. He won his bouts by out smarting the other fighter because he wasn't the most physical gifted fighter. He enlisted in World War II as a marine. That is how he earned his nickname "The Fighting Marine". He was best known with his exciting fights with Harry Greb , who was considered by most as the best middle weight of that time. So one way or another the fight was set Dempsey Vs Tunney. .
This was the rematch of the first fight in which Dempsey was dominated by Gene Tunney. They weren't even supposed to fight the first time. Dempsey was supposed to fight African-American Harry Wills but Dempsey's promoter Tex Rickard didn't want Dempsey to fight him because he was a different race. Back in the 1920's this was a normal thing for African Americans to be avoided by promoters fighters to be avoided strictly because of the color of there skin. Tex Rickard was the "Don King" of his day and was the founder of NHL team N.Y. Rangers. Tex Rickard decided to put Dempsey in the Ring with Gene Tunney. .
The fight was at Philadelphia's sesquicentennial stadium. A 120,000 people came to see who would win the brawler or the strategic fighter. The fight wasn't even close Tunney dominated and won by decision in the tenth round. When his wife asked him what happened Dempsey said "Honey I forgot to duck". Even though Tunney dominated the fight. The public demanded a rematch. It was too late though because Dempsey had retired. Then when people thought the fight would never happen Dempsey shocked the world by coming out of retirement to knock out Jack Sharky. Then he was ready to fight Tunney. .
The rematch that the public demanded was finally here. Roughly 104,00 people came toe attend the second fight it was in Chicago, Illinois at Soldier Field also where the Bears played there football games. The gate of this bout was $2.65 million. This gate was literally unheard of in the boxing world.