Harry Greb at his Greatest.

How could anyone say this guy was the best when their is no footage of him in existence?
For all we know he was a crude, non technical brawler typical of the era.

 

that is one of my ideas for a Boxing Doc - Boxing - the Black & White Film Project - Then vs Now.

I told Mike Delisa about this over 10 years ago and even posted a thread like this at CBZ or Boxrec or somewhere...

anyway you not only need the various equipment, collectors and know how, you also need to film the modern day fight ****. and by that I mean with not only the usual too fast or too slow, jerky or with the heads cut off, but equally with just incompetence and uncertainty that these early users did, learning (or Not), as they went along.

a good collector of the equipment should be able to do that and be aware of the many inadequacies or problems that arise. Well the Cats out of the Bag, someone might do it.

the turning modern video into scratchy Black & White on Youtube is NOTHING like the real old thing, ZERO!

 

I would love someone to do this. It could possibly put a few opinions to bed about how a lot of the old fighters actually looked.

 

some WILL be Crude as their Era came along evolving from Bare Knuckle where holding and sort of wrestling was aloud also a 'fall' is a round and stuff... but don't forget these were hard and tough men whom like to fight and like todays Octagon will kill you dead.

by the same token with the same **** filming practices OUR Modern Day fighters are going to look just as Bad or Wanting.

you can count on that!!!

 

hey DOUBLECHIN

here's OLD footage Done Right,

you can clearly see that these boys were in a fight, capable, skilled, fit and tough.

to think that ALL the other fighters they fought weren't as Good, Capable or Great even, just because the Filming is **** or None Existent is just plain foolish or naïve.

they were great just as some fighters are great today, the difference being, some of these guys did it every other week.

Greb was a Great fighter and so were hundreds before him, with him and after him even though they didn't live in living colour!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9Q3fl5AWE

 

With all due respect I don't see any value whatsoever in trying to embarrass another poster.

It serves no purpose.

Supposedly we are all here because we are boxing fans and it behoves us all to try and grow, not diminish, this forum.

 

Burt got his panties in a twist when I called bull**** on the story he posted. After that he was the one who brought up his own lies. At that point, as far as Im concerned, they became fair play.

 

I couldn't agree more!

However, there will always be arrogant know-it-alls, for whom it is not only important to win every argument... but equally important to discredit and ridicule their opponents in the process. The sad thing is, that when such a poster takes it out on an elderly gentleman, whose only crime is that he enjoys going on forums like this and reminisce about his boyhood heroes... then no one (except you!) speaks out against this ill-mannered behaviour. Which I find strange!

 

Sorry but when a guy gets caught fabricating those "reminisces" then I have a hard time believing hes actually a near 90 year old man who trolls internet forums. Just in this post alone hes lied more than once to cover himself.

I say again, all I did was call bull**** on a post he made as fact. He chose to take offense (which begs the question why since it was just a story in a magazine) and then brought up his own bull**** stories thats hes been caught telling more than once. Sorry just because some nameless guy on an internet forum pretends to be an old man to get instant credibility and cant get his lies straight doesnt mean Im going to believe him. I know Im not the only person who feels this way either. As far as Im concerned the issue was done until you two brought it back up but we can debate all day long on the substance behind Burt's contributions if you want.

 

I too mention to posters when they are off side, I have posted for 10 years on at least 3 major sites and the same thing 'always' happens a handful of 'know it all' bullies take over.

the ONLY site that squashed it quick was the CBZ which had a great deal of Boxing insiders and Historians on it and IF someone had contempt for diplomacy, well they only got told a few times and then they were bounced.

other sites not only allow it, but their moderators and inside core are often apart of it too.

Shame most people are here to enjoy & learn, there's NO Need for arrogant ignorant abuse!

 

Bump for Duo and all others who are 'Stuck' on film footage...

most of the old footage was not only poor quality as numerously stated but equally WRONGLY Operated by hacks... but occasionally the odd piece was 'Right' Enough to clearly see very capable and NORMAL Looking great fighters therefore PROVING that SO TOO Were ALL Their Contemporaries.

you don't need film, theirs enough good bits of footage to conclude.

 

:hi:

B, how are you friend ? I have put this lie and tirade behind me, cause
at my stage in life to fight a verbal bully is very tiring to me especially
when you never see this young twerp face to face....I am called a liar by
this arrogant know it all for the terrible crime of posting about my youth
observing with my dad my first pro main event fight I saw in 1942 at St Nicholas arena, the new sensational lightweight Beau Jack against Terry
Young [Angelo DeSanza], who was the guy that first brought Rocky
Graziano to Stillman's Gym and introduced Rocky to Whitey Bimstein...
I was 14-15 years old at that time...Do the math...A couple years later I wound up in the US Navy...To be called a liar because I have thought that
some folks at ESB might have some pleasure to read about the oldtimers I have seen 70 or so years ago, I am berated as a liar "posing" as an old
man is very painful to me B ...Old age is not for sissies and I try to keep
as active as I can...I have challenged my tormentor to show my birth certificate in a bet the money to go to charity, to no avail...
After a recent stint in a hospital B,I don't need this aggravation for dang sure...Who does "
It all started when I first started to learn painfully the computer,and
discovered ESB, started to post, was answered by the late and great
gentleman John Garfield ,whom I must of rubbed shoulders at Stillmans Gym in the 1940s, as he posted...Posted with and met another fine chap
named Henry Hascupp and was so happy to converse with fellow boxing lovers....UNTIL I once innocently posted an incident my dad who drove a cab told my mom that I heard that he once drove a passenger named
Olive Thomas ,a B'way beauty whom my mom would reminisce about
to my dad when I was a boy...So years later I read in an old Ring Mag
from the early 1940s that some boxing writer in a column mentioned
seeing Harry Greb at a table with Olive Thomas..So I once mentioned this
innocent tid bit in a post about my dad's favourite boxer Harry Greb who he saw take apart Gene Tunney at the old MSG 1925...Whether the
writer was right or wrong I do not know, but I just related this simple
little tale...B; everyone of us on ESB talks about fighters of the past on
what we have READ from them...For this innocent little line I posted
I have been called a liar though I never said I was there [in 1919-or 1920]
And finally B, I a couple of years ago opened up a thread "MY BERMUDA
TRIANGLE"...I posted this thread because for many years a fight that I swear I and a buddy saw in Coney Island NY between Ray Robinson and
the elongated Bobby Dykes in the early or mid 1950s, has NEVER been
listed in boxing record books...I recall so vividly that day watching that
dull bout,and Robinson arriving late for the bout in his Fuscia colored Cadilac...I thought that day that they fought once before in 1950, from Chicago which I saw on our 12" television set...I DO NOT blame any
poster on ESB to doubt this bout occurred, that is why I am to this day
perplexed and bewildered by this event...But not ONE person on this site
accused me of being a liar except this one vindictive person....But see it I did and it was not Ray Robinson against a Billy Brown who fought Ray Robinson TWO months before the Robinson /Dykes bout in 1950...
So B, thanks for your interest and be assured that I speak from this old heart...Peace...

 

I don't know why there's such question, but I'm pretty sure Sid Terris and Sammy Mandell were faster than Greb.

 

I wouldn't pretend to know a tenth about Greb that some claim to,but I've always believed that Greb was celebrated for his superhuman endurance as much as his quickness .