Harry Greb threw a hell of a lot of punches, very quickly, from all angles ... and was hard to hit, possibly because he was so busy, and in constant motion. That's pretty much the consensus from the first-hand reports I've read. There's no point trying to picture him with reference to fighters we've seen. He did a lot of hitting and took relatively few hits in return. That's the bottom line. I'm happy with that basic understanding of his "style".
yup i really hope film shows up one day i predict it will answer a lot of questions its just amazing how little is known of the man who was middleweight champion of the world, its not like he fought and no one knew who he was at the time (like charley burley, and we even have film of him!)
According to boxing experts who saw Harry Greb, the closest fighter who "resembled" Greb was Ken Overlin, the former middleweight champion. Ken Overlin was a great fighter who beat, Ezzard Charles,Fred Apoistoli, Al hostak,Ceferino Garcia, among others. Overlin had165 fights losing only 19. Overlin was called Harry Greb "LIGHT". Threw torrents of punches, but did not have the stamina of Harry Greb. [who did ?]. When Overlin was told he resembled [slightly] Greb , he was quoted as saying, " i am convinced Harry would lick me and my no.1 contender both in the same night, without resting time, " unquote ! High praise indeed for the Pittsburgh Windmill ...
bodhi! If I had film of him and reported to you what I saw, it would still be mere opinion. I think that you are taking a more cynical view of this matter than you may intend. History is determined by records more than by eyewitness accounts for precisely the reason that you are dismissing. Your front row seat at Greb-Walker is no more valuable than Grantland Rice's. The point is that we have many eyewitness reports about men who have been in the ring against Greb -probably more than we have about Kid Gavilan. That isn't all, and it shouldn't be all. We look at the reports and find commonalities in the reports. We look at his opponents and measure how dangerous/skilled/successful they were. We look at his record. We know as much about Greb as we do any number of movers and shakers whom no one has ever met. Applying your standard would see us burning history books. By your standard, we'd have no idea how great Alexander or Hannibal or Scipio or Julius Caesar or Augustus or Trajan or Richard the Lionheart or Saladin or legions of other great generals were. By applying a reasonable standard, we have a pretty damn good idea of how great this Ring General was. Too good to be true? --We may be underestimating him.
Well spoken/written. And might I add that the years and years of accumulated eyewitness accounts of Greb's fighting style, abilities and attributes from sportswriters, ringsiders, contemporaries and opponents are so incredibly consistent as to almost render them redundant. To ignore this veritable avalanche of evidence with a simple "But we have no film of him" is the proverbial pink elephant in the living room scenario x1000. That's not a dig at Bodhi or anyone else, btw.
Powerpuncher - In response to an earlier post - I'm glad you didn't train Marciano or Ali. You would have ruined them.
I've heard there are 'rumblings' of Greb-Walker being shown around theatres in the 50s and have not been seen since, any truth to such words? Greb was past it in 1925 (when the bout took place) but he was, what 30 years old and the fight seems to be described as quite amazing. I'd prefer to see Greb-Tunney I but Greb-Walker was a great fight too, ANY fight film of him is great. But the original point, any truth the film being shown in the 50s? It may exist today still... And the Dempsey-Greb sparring sessions, were filmed supposedly. I've heard to versions on this also, either they were lost or decayed after time, or Dempsey wanted them destroyed because of how Greb made him look. oh well.
the prior generations of boxing historians revered greb far too much not to preserve the films of his fighters. they're out there
The rumor was Greb/Tunney 1 was shown in a San Fran bar in the 50s viewed by a guy I got to know pretty well in the 90s. I'm sure hes gone by now. He always swore it was true. As far as Greb-Dempsey, it was claimed by a collector to be in his possession. After talking to him extensively, im sure his claim is false.
Looking for film of Harry Greb fighting, is like pursuing the "Holy Grail ", forever eluding us, I'm sorry to say. Just as mysterious, is there are NO films of Maxie Rosenbloom today either. Rosenbloom also had 300 bouts against the VERY best fighters of his time, and was very popular, and a colorful character too. The world has unresolved mysteries, and so does boxing...
This guy you spoke to from the fifties, did you beleive him concerning Greb-Tunney? Its a long shot now but if he could have gotten you in touch with the bar, they may have some info on it... who knows? yes ive heard that people claim to have the infamous sparring tapes and never belived them to be honest but Greb himself did said the Dempsey sparring vids were filmed and that the HW champ wanted them gone. or so ive read.
I do believe that I heard him say he saw it...beyond that..??? Every effort has been made already to locate both the Bar and Bartender. No dice!