Dempsey vs Harry Greb

[LittleRed]

No footage of Greb but there would be a substantial size difference. And in a case like this I'll go with the great big guy over the very great little guy.

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by McGrain

It must just be stressed that nobody outside of Burt, including Kompton and Bill Paxton have seen or reproduced this quote.

Mc, Yes I know Kompton never read this quote, but I did for sure. FOR SURE. Was it an accurate quote Harry Greb uttered to the reporter ? I
recall it was in an article on Greb, by some writer on the old Ring Mag.
I have old Ring Mags dating fron the late 1920s back home, some in poor condition...But Mc I read that quote, on my honor....

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by McGrain

It must just be stressed that nobody outside of Burt, including Kompton and Bill Paxton have seen or reproduced this quote.

Nobody has been enmeshed in boxing lore as long as I have, truth be told...I AM NOT a boxing historian ,but I have been reading about boxing since the early 1940s, and have retained much I have read...So Mc whether you believe me or not is up to you, but tell me what the hell did I have to gain quoting the Greb statement I posted on ESB in 2010 ?

[McGrain]

I understand Burt, but you also say you've seen an unrecorded Sugar Ray Robinson fight.

Maybe you read the quote, maybe you did not. All I can say is neither I, nor any other person including the two people who have most thoroughly researched Greb, have ever seen it.

I'm not calling you a liar, I believe you believe you read it, but until someone actually produces it I need to take it with a pinch, personally.

[lufcrazy]

Without footage I can't honestly say. It's ridiculous because both Greb and Wills wanted these fights with Jack. Jack was in a position where he could ensure they came off had he really wanted. It'd certainly have answered a lot of questions anyways.

[Surf-Bat]

Originally Posted by McGrain

It must just be stressed that nobody outside of Burt, including Kompton and Bill Paxton have seen or reproduced this quote.

I've read it. Can't remember where, but I'm pretty sure it was something he said to a sportswriter. Regis Welsh?

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by McGrain

I understand Burt, but you also say you've seen an unrecorded Sugar Ray Robinson fight.

Maybe you read the quote, maybe you did not. All I can say is neither I, nor any other person including the two people who have most thoroughly researched Greb, have ever seen it.

I'm not calling you a liar, I believe you believe you read it, but until someone actually produces it I need to take it with a pinch, personally.

Mc,
Two points - You, I, Klomton, or anyone, has read all the literature written pertaining to Harry Greb...As sure as i am typing this missive to you, I read that quote...I believe what that long ago contemporary writer wrote about what Greb told him, as this quote was not the main message of his article...
And Mc you brought up a sore point for me
In the middle 1950s I DID SEE Ray Robinson defeat a Bobby Dykes in Coney Island, NY...With a buddy now deceased I watched Robinson beat Dykes in this [their second bout]...The first bout I saw on tv from Chicago
Nov 8,1950..I know We saw that second bout that is not in the record books...I also know that it was a dull bout and I also know that box.rec
has Dykes listed as a southpaw but the elongated Bobby Dykes was an
ORTHODOX fighter ,so even the record books are not infallible...And I know that Ray Robinson fought ONE time at Coney Island on Sept 4,1950 a WW Billy Brown,two months before Robby beat Bobby Dykes in Chicago...I have spent endless hours trying to resolve this mystery of mine, but to no avail as both Robinson and Bobby Dykes are dead...But we saw this FIGHT!!!

[turbotime]

Burt please write a ****ing book.

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by mcgrain

i understand burt, but you also say you've seen an unrecorded sugar ray robinson fight.

Maybe you read the quote, maybe you did not. All i can say is neither i, nor any other person including the two people who have most thoroughly researched greb, have ever seen it.

I'm not calling you a liar, i believe you believe you read it, but until someone actually produces it i need to take it with a pinch, personally.

i read it !

[SLAKKA]

Ive come across this quote many times and im convinced it was disinformation planted by Doc Kearns and Francis Albertani, his press agent.
Greb craved a Dempsey fight and was convinced he was the better man.

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by SLAKKA

Ive come across this quote many times and im convinced it was disinformation planted by Doc Kearns and Francis Albertani, his press agent.
Greb craved a Dempsey fight and was convinced he was the better man.

S,I cannot recall who wrote this article quoting Harry Greb. It is possible
that it was Francis Albertani who wrote the article I read many years after Greb died and Dempsey retired...So 17 or so years later if it was Albertani I read, why would he still promulgate an untruth to enhance Dempsey's reputation ? But read this quote in an old Ring Mag, I sure did...

[PowerPuncher]

Greb I think likely had the speed and jab to outbox Dempsey, but if Dempsey catches up to him he can obviously score the KO. A Matador-Bull match up basically

Originally Posted by McGrain

Greb chased a fight with Dempsey from before the Mauler was champion, until he was way past prime. The last time a fight was seriously mooted between the two was as a warm up for Dempsey's bout with Wills around a year before he met Wills, and at that point, Greb didn't seem particularly confident - he had also withdrawn his offer to fight the champ for free.

But in his prime he was confident. No reason not to be really, he tended to do very well against the guys Dempsey had met.

Originally Posted by McGrain

Wills said he wanted to fight him for free too.

I didn't know Greb/Wills offered to fight for free, it seems unlikely, maybe posturing, except the money the world title would bring would make it worth it if they won

Originally Posted by burt bienstock

FH, no this quote that Harry Greb uttered to a boxing writer " after 5 or so
rounds, Dempsey would kill me ",I read several times in old boxing magazines of the 1940s...
So why did Greb, believing this challenge Dempsey for a bout? He would have made more money for that one bout than a year of fighting town to town, and as the Bio of Greb's book reads ,"Harry Greb was fearless"...

Not if he fought him for free he wouldn't

[Seamus]

The fact remains, and does so glaringly, that Dempsey chose to defend the title against challengers Greb had already beaten, and most times beaten emphatically, rather than defend against Greb himself.

Miske
Brennan
Jimmy Darcy
Tommy Gibbons
Gene Tunney

Even his vaunted run to the title was full of Greb victims, Gunboat Smith, Levinsky, Miske, Brennan, Meehan...

You can bicker about apocryphal quotes, but the above is absolutely factual.

It's almost as unforgivable a duck as was Wills.

[burt bienstock]

Originally Posted by turbotime

Burt please write a ****ing book.

I did write a best seller...Title was "My Brother Is An Only Child ".

[SLAKKA]

Originally Posted by burt bienstock

S,I cannot recall who wrote this article quoting Harry Greb. It is possible
that it was Francis Albertani who wrote the article I read many years after Greb died and Dempsey retired...So 17 or so years later if it was Albertani I read, why would he still promulgate an untruth to enhance Dempsey's reputation ? But read this quote in an old Ring Mag, I sure did...

burt please,
a couppla devious sobs start a rumor and others parrot it forever.