Who Ranks Higher Harry Greb or Sam Langford?

Cool. I value dominance very highly as well but it seems most posters value big losses and big wins as more of a deciding factor than dominance (at least from what I have seen)

 

Both are top 5 ATGs IMO.. But Greb for me.. his legendary 1919 run has to be the most impressive feat in boxing history.. he basically packed an entire HOF career into a single year.. hes the most consistent fighter of any weight class ever, he's the greatest MW ever & IMO possesses the greatest LHW resume of all time too.. & what makes him even more special is he did most of this with impaired vision.. he stands alone for me.

 

I voted Langford because the majority of the time he had that swag on, but realistically it's a toss up

 

You don't think Armstrong has some say in this arguement?

 

Langford is the shortest HW champ in history. Yet he holds virtually every longevity record at the weight class for champions and contenders. He has beaten the most contenders of any champ and has nearly beaten twice as many as Ali and Louis who've fought the 2nd most among champions.

Langford has 15 more fights with HW contenders then Greb has against LHW contenders. 78 to 63. This does not count some of Langfords wins over superheavys like Andre Anderson and Bill Tate.

Adjusted for newspaper decisions Grebs KO rate is 19.62% the 10th lowest among all LHW contenders/champions I have listed. Langfords is 61.72. Langford was fighting at HW. Langford was shorter than Greb. Langford could destroy HWs like Lang and Schreck at 165 pounds.

Greb does have a higher KO rate than Loughran. But Loughrans wins include Max Baer, Braddock, Sharkey, Godoy and Uzcudchin. He has an excuse.

Grebs lack of success at HW stands out amongst his ATG peers who all had more. But at least with those guys(Tunney, Miske, Gibbons, Loughran, Levinsky, Dillon) you can say they were bigger. Langford wasn't yet he had the most success of all of them.


This vote is a more grevious injustice then the famous Zhang v Foreman poll.

 

Armstrong is my #4 and I think reasonable arguments can be made that he should be #1.

 

Greb, Robinson, Pep, Langford, Benny Leonard, Armstrong, Gans, imo Pretty much all interchangeable as the goat, there is no wrong answer

 

I note that some prefer Langford for his success at HW .. one of the differences between Harry and Langford is Langford was more thicker set than Greb.. therefore probably more adaptable to fighting HWs.. by his mid to late 20s he was weighing between 185lbs to 200lbs+.. Greb barely ever weighed more than 170lbs in his entire career.. & as is well known was also visually impaired for much of it.. so Greb is more impressive for me when you factor in those things too.. yes Langford was purportedly out of shape in many of his contests but again doesn't that give Greb another tick over Langford? Discipline.. Greb was rarely out of shape. Despite his insane schedule. It's down to personal preference and I don't begrudge anyone picking Langford but for me Greb is the GOAT.

 

Hi Buddy.
Agree on all fronts, nicely laid out btw, I have always had Greb as the No 1, both in the MDs, and P4P, what he accomplished was truly unbelievable, and with only one good eye for the latter stages, the fighters he beat would be hard enough with 2 eyes !!!! plus, and I can't emphasize this enough, he was a one off, no one but no one, fought like him, some have come close, but none like his particular style, their was a list recently on the greatest pressure fighters, and some posters included Greb, but he wasn't a pressure fighter in the broad sense of the word, ie: Frazier, Armstrong, etc, he would literally launch himself at the opponent, with both hands whirling around like a threshing machine, then after a few seconds, glide backwards out of range of any counters, then repeat, and repeat, the stories are legion of atg fighters saying he was almost impossible to hit cleanly, coupled with a titanium chin, unrivaled stamina, and a pace that actually picked up as the fight progressed, he was a marvel, his feats will never, never, be equalled,never mind beaten, he stands alone as a colossus in boxing, no augments please.
Always have time for your posts and intelligent input.
stay safe buddy, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Langford won his first HW title weighing 158. His demolition of Lang came at 166 pounds. While many fight weights are missing on boxrec the shift to the Langford you're talking about happened somewhere in 1913.

 

No

 

I agree with Most of what you laid out here. The betting favorite would have to be Langford.
Whether right or wrong I use Norfolk as a litmus test subject often.
Langford got a young & highly successful version of Norfolk & just dog walked him dropping him often.
Greb certainly struggled far more than Langford against Norfolk...

The only Thing that could swing Things in Greb's favor is that his Era....Era 2 in history is much stronger than was the previous era. And Greb beat many of the very top guy's. That would be what was working in Greb's favor....

But I agree with Historyzero. Langford is better as a P4P guy. In fact he's hard to beat in that respect as Historyzero point's out.

I rank Langford squarely as the #2 P4P of his Era (era 1). The only reason he's not #1 has nothing to do with talent but with height as I have a high value on Cubic sq inch.
And the #1 P4P is significantly shorter holding a much greater handicap than even Langford was giving away. But that's just my option.

Langford is a full inch shorter than Greb & likely had more power. He's just better P4P to me but I understand the argument's as Greb's field is much deeper & more difficult. Which is why so many option's are split.