Harry Greb, head to head vs. the great middleweights

Yes, this is true, from what I have read. Not a bad idea. This was an era way before internet, so it was much easier to fool the people into believing stuff like that.

 

While I was reading your nonsense post, I wanted to sell my eyeballs. Let me give you a little history lesson here on the Perpetual Motion Machine. He was a swarmer, but not just some crude slugger. He was good defensively and his awkwardness was an attribute, not a setback. He had stamina like few, if any, other fighters in the history of the sweet science. He had approximately 300 fights, only losing about 20. He fought some of the best welterweights, middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights of his time. He didn't draw no B.S. colorline neither. If he had been given the opportunity to fight the men that he wanted to fight, we may very well be calling Greb the former middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight champion of the world. Greb never got a chance at Dempsey, Carpentier, Siki, etc.

How could any sane person draw any conclusion based on the about 7 minutes of his training? It's not like Greb knew that this would be the only surviving film of him. If he had known, then maybe he would've done a little more to impress you there, Mr. Boxing Critic.

Let me ask you something. If Greb was just a swarmer with shitty footwork, then why did he beat the men that he did? And why did his opponents and boxing historians who saw him speak so highly of his ability?


Greb gave me a terrible whipping. My jaw was swollen from the right temple down the cheek, along the chin and part way up the other side. The referee, the ring itself, was full of my blood. If boxing was afflicted with the commission doctors that we have now, the first fight probably would have been stopped and no one would have heard of me today.
-- Gene Tunney


He was never in one spot for more than half a second, 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.
-- Gene Tunney

Wow, did Gene Tunney say that he was never in one spot for more than a second? How did Greb move so fast with such shitty footwork? Why did Tunney keep hitting empty air? Tunney was a very gifted boxer and accurate puncher. Like fighting an octopus, he says.



The fastest fighter I ever saw. Hell. Greb is faster than Benny Leonard.
-- Jack Dempsey


Greb may have been the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, who ever lived. Certainly, he was among the top 2 or 3. He combined the speed of Ray Robinson, the durability of Jim Jeffries, the stamina of Henry Armstrong, and the unbridled ferocity of Stanley Ketchel with a will to win unsurpassed in the annals of sport. At his peak, he was unbeatable, defeating virtually every middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight of his generation. A great, great fighter.
-- Historian Eric Jorgensen

 

Thanks for your insight, Burt. If I could add one point to your post, it's that Harry Greb is seen smiling while sparring with O'Brien. I also read that O'Brien took a fatherly interest in Greb. The guys were just taking part in some light sparring. It's not as if Greb knew that this would be the only existing film on him.

 

My thoughts exactly. I like the new avatar.:good

 

Haha. Good stuff Burt. You are a poet and didn't even knowit. :good