Does Harry Greb have a case for being the most dominat sportsman in history?

May"be I am biased when it comes to my awe of Harry Greb.When I was a youngster my father, a devout boxing fan from the 1920's, would frequently tell me, thatin 1922 at MSG, he saw Harry Greb give Gene Tunney, a terribly bloody whipping, even though Greb was 15 lbs. lighter.A remarkable display against a 15 pound heavier great Gene Tunney.Greb did this feat of whipping much larger great light heavies and heavyweights time and again.Ray Robinson who I saw in his Welterweight prime, and and ko"ing Randy Turpin, in 1951, Polo Grounds, would never face Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles,Harold Johnson, Lloyd Marshall, etc. He knew better to tackle such bigger and stronger men.. Harry Greb avoided no one in his peak. He was fearless....Picture the great Secretariet, spotting all the top horses 10 or more pounds race after race and beating all opposition. Greb was truly amazing........

 

What about Bob Fitzsimmons - New Zealand lightweight champion and possibly could have won a World title, if given any results, Undefeated Middleweight champion, Light heavyweight champion (before and after the belt was invented), Heavyweight champion, Greatest prizefighter in the world until old age set in, when he became the 2nd greatest in the world! Fitz had more KOs, fought as many or more fights as Greb, fought as large or larger spread of weights and was generally a dominant force like none have ever seen. He did the things Greb couldnt quite, for various reasons. I think that if anyone has a case for best sportsmen ever (from Boxing) it is Fitz. His dominance never has or never will be seen again. Not from Langford, Greb or anyone else. I think that he (or possibly armstrong) should be boxing's nomination for the event, as he is the only one who has achieved what no one else has been able to, in the long history of the sport.

 

What athletes/sportsmen would you choose regardless of sport, out of curiosity.

 

This is the part where we talk about how amazing Jeffries is for beating him.

 

It would have to be an individual sport, so I'd probably go with someone like Alexander Karelin in Greco-Roman wrestling. Hell, even a guy like Phelps today is about as dominant as an athlete can get in any sport. As has been stated, I'm not entirely sure Greb would be the very first choice in boxing (though it's an arguable point, to be sure), let alone all sport.

 

Jeffries is up there, he is the first to achieve what only Marciano has done since - Retire as unbeaten heavyweight champion of the world. But that is not as impressive as what Fitz did and does not place him ahead of the field as some of the other elite sportsmen who have dominated their own sports in their time.

It would be interesting to see what other sports throw up.

I think Tiger Woods would have to have a winning percentage and performance percentage far ahead of his piers, so he would be a decent shout. Motor Racing is a tough one, I think Schumacher has done what no one else has but others have a different favourite and things are close there. Rod Laver was very dominant in Tennis. And as i recall, Steffi Graf never really had any competition during her time at the top as she obliterated all of them, winning a Golden Grand Slam among many other titles, which is the tennis ultimate, really. Rugby League has Wally Lewis and his state of origin dominant performances, but many disagree on his role. Soccer has Maradonna who was unbelievable for a short while, probably more dominant than the wider accepted Pele, but other scored as regularly as he did. Michael Jordan from Basketball is a decent shout, but is he more dominant than Wilt Chamberlain and others. Didnt Lance Armstrong win an insane amountof Tour De Frances, some of which were after being diagnosed with Cancer? That takes some beating.

There are so many great sportsmen in a variety of sports. Usually, at some point in time, one particular sportsmen will step ahead of the field. If Fitzy hasnt done this in boxing, then i dont think that anyone actually has, yet.

 

And Fitzsimmons would beat Alexander Karelin 1, 2, 3 in the centre of the ring

 

Good shout out with Karelin.

 

For those who dont know, what did Karelin do in his sport?

 

You are Scottish, you are a minority anyway

 

I didnt realise there was ANY fight footage of Greb?

 

Phil Taylor.

 

Lance Armstrong won 7 in a row yeah.

It's such an impossible task to pick the most dominant sportsman in history!

 

Yeah but he is suspicionend of doping and when you look at the fact that about every top cylcist got cought with doping in the last years and that his testerostone-levels where as high as the level of the other cyclists despite him just having one testicular I think it's highly unlikely that he didn't do it.