Why was Greb ranked as no.1 so late?

Just looking through the Ring Record Book for 1967. Fleischer rates his top 10 middleweights of all time
1 Stanley Ketchel
2 Tommy Ryan
3 Harry Greb
4 Mickey Walker
5 Ray Robinson
6 Frank Klaus
7 Billy Papke
8 Les Darcy
9 Mike Gibbons
10 Jeff Smith

 

Fleischer tended to rate old timers high. But still... No Fitzsimmons? Papke over Charley Burley? No Freddie Steele or Tony Zale?

 

I'm sure I've seen a revised rating from Fleischer where he rated Harada and Jofre.

 

Good question. I've pondered it and I believe there are numerous reasons, WAY too many to go into here!:smoke I'll leave it to Klompton's book (which I'm also hoping will be finished soon. An "All you ever wanted to know about Greb but were afraid to ask and never will have to again" opus).

 

Well they were damned good. Still id bet that each division has an inordinate number of guys that fought in the 1900's. In fact it wouldn't suprise me if the top guys were all.from that era.

 

You are correct. Armstrong was not at all like Greb. Harry was in and out, side to side, in back of you, in front of you, in back again.....all the while flailing nonstop punches with Ray Leonard-speed and from Aaron Pryor-esque angles. He is best described as an "elusive pressure fighter", which sounds like a contradiction. But it's the best I can come up with after reading so many eyewitness descriptions of his style.

An exasperated Mike Gibbons, after losing to Greb, asked George Chip how he "figured" Greb's impossible-to-time style. Chip's answer? "You can't"

 

That's one of the best comparisons I've seen when comparing Greb's style to another fighter. Probably a lot like Pacquiao with less power though and more Zivic like tactics to throw off an opponents rhythm.

 

Harry Greb's style ? Picture a non-stop windmill throwing blows from any and all angles...
You couldn't time him as he was a perpetual motion machine,and he never gave his opponent the ball...An opponent described his time in the ring with Greb as "I felt as if the ceiling opened up and a truckload of gloves came falling down on my head ".
Greb's unique style was his own, never to be duplicated again...

 

Did you see this or are you relying on something someone else said.

 

He throws fast punches from all angles for the whole fight like Pacquiao. Just less power so his movement would want to be a lot better which is really saying something. As you see with Pacman this style can be timed by a great counter puncher and made to look ordinary. Just as Tunney did to Greb as Greb's whole defense was based on attack and movement.

 

He's relying on what hundreds of eyewitnesses have said. That should be conclusive enough, wouldn't you say? :smoke

 

Some things we need to be able to see to know. For example we cannot know how fast he was in comparison to other fighters as all we know is based on peoples opinions. So we can't compare his skills to fighters that he never fought.