Harry Greb Confident He Can Beat Dempsey

The idea that suddenly he fell into this well of money in Hollywood after fighting Brennan and that suddenly fights with his contenders were too small potatoes for him is patently ridiculous given that he was willing to fight a dying man that Greb beat for the same amount of money he was offered to fight Greb that year after he was already getting paid from his motion picture contract.
Ok, you do know that there was a 14 month period of inactivity for Dempsey between the Willard fight and the Miske fight, and three months to the Brennan fight then only fight in 1921, for his first million dollar gate. Dempsey in that time period had deals that would pay him about a million with the Carp fight. And after carp, Dempsey didn’t fight again til he fought Gibbons.

 

Forget the fact that he was a boxing champion and had a responsibility to defend his championship or move on and let others have a crack at it.
Again, here is where you assume that it was Dempsey’s responsibility, he cashed in on the championship just like all the other champs then and now, and got the most money he could, and he was doing just that. Like he said, fighters, fight. He fought who they served up for him and paid the most money. There are more than a few articles that say in Dempsey own words, that he was willing to fight anybody, he asked for a promoter to make an offer, Senya, posted such an article which you and yours refused to consider, saying just that in Dempsey’s own words.

 

Your notion that we should give him a pass because he sat on his title and milked it at the expense of real fighters seems to be at cross purposes. Do you really believe he should be forgiven or lauded for this?
He is lauded even without fighting Greb, Wills, Willard II and Carp II. Maybe not by you, but by the majority of the people who are doing the lauding, is that why it grinds your nuts?

 

You keep bringing up supposedly "mickey mouse" promoters but you want to use that excuse only when its convenient for you and want to ignore the fact that the champion was more than willing to fight for these promoters provided the competition wasn't threatening.
He fought for the most money, are you saying that both Tunney and Sharkey were non threatening?

 

Im not sure where you think you are going with comparing unknown Cubans who cant draw with Greb.
Unknown Cubans, OMG, are you clueless
Greb, being so popular, he had to take the toughest fights out there to make a buck, he fired his manager cos he couldn’t get him big fights. Anytime you see a guy fighting the toughest guys, it’s cos they have to,
Just curious what was Greb’s largest purse and what million dollar fight was Greb involved in? Greb was a MW, who’s biggest fight at MW was vs Mickey Walker. The gate was $375,000. Way short of a million dollar gate.

Greb was one of the most sought after fighters of the era. You don't get as busy a schedule as he had because people don't want to see you in action.
A matchmaker has to put two guys together, an "A" and a "B" side. The "A" is usually the name or the guy the promoter is interested in. The "B" side is the opponent. Greb just wanted to fight and make some money, he accepted anything he didn't care if he was the A or B side. The matchmaker knew with Greb he had at least one side done, that's one of the reasons he fought so often. The other he was a name opponent. So as I said Greb was a matchmakers dream come true.
It was pointed out to your in earlier post that his fight with Tommy Gibbons was one in the top ten gates of all time at that point.
Was it a million dollar gate?To act like Greb was some unknown is an odd position to take.
This is your interpretation of what I said, let me be clear, Greb was a matchmakers dream, he would fight anybody. Never said Greb was an unknown, but IMO he wasn’t the draw you claim he was.
He was fighting marquee fights before anyone even knew who Dempsey was.

Let me ask a question, why did it take 238 pro fights for Greb to fight for the title if he was so popular? Usually fighters who sell tickets and are as popular as you say Greb was, would have a promoter behind him that would put up the money, to buy a title shot. Yes, I am aware that Rickard finally got him that fight, but 238 in, that's a hard way to go. Surely, a big time promoter would have latched on to Greb, like he did Dempsey, somebody like Rickard, who was always looking to make big fights. Money makes the boxing world go round. A MW was and are always in demand, Greb fought for Rickard so Rickard knew first hand what kind of draw Greb was.

 

A small avalanche, didn't hurt Dempsey at all. The many can care less, the few will always be whining. I would say the many wouldn't have a clue who the two Harry's were and could care less.