Greb vs Louis. What type of chance does Greb have?

Every newspaper report and article on him has fighters, world class ones, stating he's the fastest they ever saw. I'd imagine he's one of the fastest swarmers of all time without a second thought.

Also, Louis knocked out Godoy in the REMATCH. Where he was always, never fail, better then in the first match. Godoy went the distance easily the first time.

 

Dempsey
did not take it easy on his sparring partners, well only Joe Benjamin who was a lightweight and not allways him,but he went only 2 rounds with Greb ,before Kearns called it off ,that didnt give Jack much time to catch up with Harry did it?
Over 15 rds Dempsey would.
Tommy Loughran worked with Dempsey readying him for Tunney ,and he embarrassed Jack with his skill,would he have been able to avoid the Maulers punches for 15 rds ? I dont think so.
Greb came at you ,that is a recipe for disaster for a big mddleweight who lacked power ,when the man you are attacking is Joe Louis,good chin or not ,the best of them will crack if hit often enough ,and Louis would hit Greb's, hard and often .
Louis put Braddock's teeth through his mouth piece and down into his lower lip ,he did this with one right hand.
He knocked Paulino's gold front teeth out along with his mouthpiece, they were on the ring floor like a charm bracelet.
Louis kod Buddy Baer a huge man with one right hand ,and hit him so hard he did a perfect piroutte,as he fell as though he was screwing himself into the ring canvas.
Coming in to that kind of power ,when you dont possess heavy artillery yourself is NOT a good idea.

 

I thought Louis won the fight reasonably clearly ,I dont see it as a Hagler Leonard type of close one.
Godoy made Louis look bad ,but he didnt do much clean punching himself,he came in working out of a crouch so low his gloves actually brushed the canvas a couple of times.
Blackburn had Louis in the gym a week later and drilled him to throw only uppercuts ,after a month of solid work he was upending sparmates with uppercuts from both hands,4 months after the first fight Louis WRECKED Godoy ,he put lacerations under both his eyes and gave him a complete hiding.

 

I'm amoung those who think that Greb has no chance against Joe. That said, I there are some who are really underestimating Greb's speed, durability, and chances against heavier opponents.

The following are quotes from the great web site Cox's Corner.

Re the lack of film: Historians and collectors of vintage films understand Greb's greatness based on his record and the many existing films of his opposition. There are films of Mike Gibbons, Tommy Gibbons, Tommy Loughran, Jimmy Slattery, Mickey Walker, Bill Brennan and Gene Tunney, all outstanding fighters whom Greb bested. One can see how good these fighters were and know that Greb defeated them.

Re speed and movement:

Jack Dempsey said that Greb was “The fastest fighter I ever saw. Hell. Greb is faster than (lightweight champion) Benny Leonard.”

“He was never in one spot for more than half a second,” said Gene Tunney, “All my punches were aimed and timed properly but they always wound up hitting empty air. He'd jump in and out, slamming me with a left and whirling me around with his right or the other way around. My arms were plastered with leather and although I jabbed, hooked and crossed, it was like fighting an octopus.”

Re durability: In around 300 professional fights, which included dozens of bouts against heavyweights, he was stopped only twice, once in his first year of fighting, and once when he broke his forearm throwing a punch at Kid Graves.

I would add that he fought the 300 fights in a short time span, including 45 times in 1919!

Finally, while I'm sure there are many duds on his resume, there are many great ones, including heavyweights, and he did not draw the color line. From Cox's Corner:

He defeated 18 men who held, had held, or would hold world championships, and this at a time when there were only 8 divisions in boxing and one champion in each division. The 5 middleweight champions that Greb defeated were Mike O’Dowd, George Chip, Al McCoy, Mickey Walker, Tiger Flowers and Johnny Wilson from whom he won the title. He also defeated 4 middleweight title claimants Eddie McGoorty, Frank Mantell, Jeff Smith and Bryan Downey. Greb defeated 7 light heavyweight world champions, Mike McTigue, Jack Dillon, Battling Levinsky, Tommy Loughran, Jimmy Slattery and Maxie Rosenbloom and one future world heavyweight champion, Gene Tunney whom he fought five times. Count ‘em! 5+4+7+1=18 champions who lost to Greb. Remarkable!

 

Greb obviously isn't your strong point.

 

My understanding is that Dempsey had fits with Greb in sparring because he could not hit him, not that Greb took his best punches ... no matter how great Greb's chin was he was not taking too many of Dempsey's best shots and surviving .. What made Greb so difficult was that he could keep up that pace for the 15 rounds when most bigger men would be exhausted trying to hit him ..

I really could easily see Louis losing a dcision to Greb in their first encounter ... Louis could be confused and was not the greatest at shifting gears in a fight. He was exceptional at correcting flaws between bouts and executing in a manner that brought dramatic differences ... we saw this over and over through out his career but the Godoy fight was a perfect example ... I would then say in a rematch Louis would emerge victorious ..

 

Tommy Laughran always liked Harry's chances vs Joe Louis.

 

Harry Greb's record according to Wikipedia: 303 fights, 260 wins, 21 losses, 17 draws, 6 no-contests.

Here is what Gene Tunney wrote about Greb in his autobiography: "In the third round another cut over the right eye left me looking through a red film. For the better part of twelve rounds, I saw this red phantom-like form dancing before me... it is impossible to describe the bloodiness of this fight... I actually saw two red opponents."

Harry Greb is the only man to beat Gene Tunney, and he was blind in one eye when he did it.

 

Slim to None.

 

Harry Greb is an era biassed boxing historian's great white hope. Conveniently there is no visual evidence of him looking like ****, like everyone else from that era, so he's easier to defend than Dempsey. Also you cannot look at footage of both Dempsey and Louis and tell me that Dempsey is not several classes below Louis, in terms of skill and power. Louis destroys Greb

 

Pretty much all that needs to bee said on the subject. Any sub-200lb fighter who's gameplan is to smother Louis is going to end up face first on the canvas.

 

It might be similar for a while to the first fight Joe Louis had with Billy Conn, but I think Louis would KO Greb less than half way through the scheduled number of rounds.