Possibly, I won't contradict you there. No, but it was way way worse nonetheless. The level of boxing was nowhere near.
Why do you suppose? These guys were beyond full-time boxers. The amount of rounds some fought are mind-boggling. The conditions they performed in were downright medieval. They had few of the benefits of scouting and prep that modern fighters take for granted so they had to develop a style around this itinerant career path.
Yes, they were full time boxers, but they simply lacked the skillset modern boxers possess. It's just the way things are, sportsmen evolve, boxing is no different.
I've never rated him that high, the footage does not impress me. He's better than many in that era, but still a far cry from modern boxers.
What some people don't seem to get there heads around, is that not all that glitters is gold, and not all that is gold glitters. There have been fighters who looked incredible on film, but were just missing a key ingredient. There have been fighters who looked awful on film, but had an unorthodox style, that somehow worked. Forgive me for throwing in a quote about a famous runner, but somebody once said of Emil Zatopek "He does everything wrong except win." The same thing might perhaps have been said about Harry Greb in his day.
I am wondering why people are even judging Greb by this footage. He was past his prime, blind and will be dead not long from this footage. We can get a ideal of his style, but this is like looking at Tyson at the end of his run or Louis in his last fights.
Even if it was his absolute peak, wouldn't his record be a more reliable gauge of how good he was? I mean we have footage of his victims, like Gene Tunney and Mickey Walker for example, and you obviously didn't dominate them by being a stumblebum!
As usual, no details. Just your usual 'boxers sucked back then"... except with SRR, with him your logic doesn't matter anymore
Yeah we have film of his victims, and Greb is a ATG and I do rank him high, but people looking at this light hearted shadow boxing footage when Greb was clearly past it and claming he sucked base on this footage is kinda of insane imo. Greb was one of the greatest fighters ever, We just do not have film of any of his fights when Greb put everything on the line. We really can not judge Greb's talent or skills base on this clip is what I am saying.