Tommy Gibbons - How do you rate him??

Why do you say that he was unfortunate that Harry Greb was around? Gibbons split his series 2-2 with Greb and even then, if there third fight hadnt been hit by a massive thunderstorm that stopped him from setting for his punches, it probably would have been 3-1. I think that there is a very good, very good argument that Gibbons was a better fighter than Harry Greb, which obviously (if true) suggests that he should(or at least could) be a top 10 fighter. Pretty amazing, when you consider the many considered him to only be the second best figther in his family!

 

He was my uncle.

 

By the time the rainstorm started reports state that the fight was "close", so I don't really merit in saying Gibbons "probably" would have beaten Greb. Harry won clearly according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Greb weighed around 160, while Gibbons was thought to weight some 20 pounds more (he refused to weigh-in before the fight).

Gibbons himself admitted to Greb's superiority when he stated the huge difference between fighting Greb in a 6-10 round bout and fighting him in a 15 round bout. Tommy had an 8 pound weight advantage in that bout and still Greb gave him a shellacking.

 

Okay, i was sensationalising a bit. But the fact remains that a younger Gibbons beat a younger Greb, and could easily have been 3 and 0 if the storm hadnt hit. It seems undisputed that the storm helped Greb more than Gibbons.


Your quote is interesting, but you have to be wary of putting too much stock into such quotes whre often it is just being a gracious loser. Whichever way you lean, I dont think that if Greb and either of the Gibbons were to fight pound for pound at middleweight in their prime you could say with any certainty who would win. There isnt much between them, as shown by their weights.

And i am pretty sure i am correct in saying that Tommy Gibbons won their only middleweight fight, arent I?

 

We can deate the details, but I think it is fair to say that Greb is the fighter that you would erase from the era, if you wanted to enhance Gibbons standing.

Simply put, he beat Gibbons when it counted in legacy terms.

 

By the end of their series they were probably the two best lhws in the world.

Calling it a mw v lhw is a bit unfair.

It'd be like if Hopkins beat cloud and sought a rematch with Dawson, its two lhw guys fighting each other.

 

I am just looking for a bit of discussion and consideration here. I am undecided on the issue (in reality probably still leaning towards Greb). But, I dont think their is much in it.

given the comments you have made, would it be fair to say that Greb is better pound for pound, but Gibbons, prime for prime would be more likely to win a fight, because he was the bigger fighter? I actually think i might lean towards this.

 

It should be said in Tommys defence, that he did a lot better in his series against Harry Greb than Gene Tunney did, and against a better version.

 

Very, very good and interesting point to think about.

 

Wow! never even thought of that!:good

 

In regards to size differential:

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Even though they're both fully dressed, I think it's safe to say that Gibbons held a distinct advantage in size overall.

 

It would have been cool had Gibbons and Loughran ever faced, tho the window was kinda small where Tommy was a full fledged light heavy and Gibbons was still top flight. But that era was loaded at light heavy, maybe the deepest era ever for the division.

 

However we look at it Tommy Gibbons at his best was a legitimate lightheavyweight, whilst Harry Greb when REQUIRED was a middleweight as shown in his LAST year in boxing when he weighed 158-9 in his 3 fights with Mickey Walker and his two bouts with Tiger Flowers,ONE year before he died...Yes when Greb did not have to weigh under 160 pounds when defending his MW title,and fought much larger men, he had no need to
get under 160 lbs, and treated himself to richer foods and comforts as MANY other champions did engaging in over the weight bouts also did.
But Harry Greb was smaller, shorter than Tommy Gibbons was, and it is to Harry Greb's credt that he did as well against a bigger PRIME Tommy Gibbons in their 3 great fights....And at any time of Greb's amazing career he would go under 160 pounds if required...