Live Fast, Die Young: The Life and Times of Harry Greb

Id rather not get in to numbers but it is doing well and Im happy with the sales. I just found out yesterday that Mike Tyson is reading it, which is thrilling because hes always been one of my favorites.

 

Thank you once again for the kind words. Im glad you have been enjoying it. Is it the second Flowers fight or the third? Those fights were sad to write about as well. They really spelled the end of Greb's career. He was crushed by the loss of his title and his inability to put up a better performance. But as his handlers said, you cant take a fighter like Flowers lightly, do the minimal amount of training, and the expect to keep your championship. I mean, who prepares for a southpaw as awkward as Flowers without having a single lefty in camp??

 

Thank you! Yes, had Greb been a better "connected" fighter there's no telling what he would have accomplished. McTigue wouldnt have been able to duck him, he wouldnt have lost that controversial decision to Tunney (which could have altered history), the press in New York which basically wrote (incorrectly) his legacy would have been more kind to him, and he likely would have gotten a shot at Dempsey, among other things.

Incidently Im working on two books right now (which hopefully wont take me 11 years to complete). One is a book detailing the Harry Wills-Jack Dempsey rivalry and all of it's behind the scenes chicanery. The other is a book about the middleweight muddle of the 1910s. It starts out with the death of Stanley Ketchel and how that threw the division into turmoil for the next decade or so and ends with Greb winning the championship. I acquired so much great information on guys like Frank Klaus, Billy Papke, Jack Dillon, Eddie McGoorty, Les Darcy, Al McCoy, Mike Gibbons, Mike O'Dowd, Jimmy Clabby and the other claimants of the era that I thought it would be a fun project to make sense of the era.

 

McTigue is one of the worst champions in history. He is on par with Al McCoy. His entire reign was a sham from winning a robbery over Siki (who was not that good) to his refusal to meet anyone threatening (he ducked out of agreed upon title defenses against Greb and Tunney), to his shenanigans sorrounding the first Stribling fight, a fight he actively sought because he figured Stribling was a 18 year old easy mark and then when he realized Stribling could fight a little he tried everything he could to worm his way out of the fight even with a handpicked, imported referee who was there to protect McTigue (and did). McTigue is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with that era of boxing.

Bartley Madden was a human heavy bag who made a career out of taking beatings while being able to stand upright. He was actually not a bad fighter on a good day but for the most part he was just a tough journeyman. Good right hand though when he could land it.

Coffey wasnt a bad fighter. At his best he was a "B" level fighter and Id rate him higher than Madden (even though Madden ended up beating him). Coffey's problem, like a lot of big guys from that era, was that he could be out-thought and outboxed. But at his best he was one of the better white hopes of the era until he ran into Moran.