Charley Rose and Nat Fliesieisiiecher both ranked Ketchel above Greb at MW

I can't rank Harry Greb as the greatest of all-time, pound-for-pound, since I wouldn't rank him higher than #3 at middleweight, and probably #5 or below at 175 pounds.
But, on the other hand, I think Greb is a very worthy choice.

 

EMERSON DICKERSON, A SPORTS FIGURE, 64; Writer, Referee in 12,400 Fights, Dies in Grand Rapids, Mich.
New York Times (1923-Current file). Jun 25, 1940. p. 23 (1 page)

1.ED W. SMITH.; !Veteran Sports Writer and Boxing Referee Dies on Coast.
New York Times (1923-Current file). Feb 25, 1936. p. 19 (1 page)

These were two hard core men of boxing who rated Harry over Ketch. Both would have considered Nat a Johnny come lately.
Better yet Nat=Burt Sugar. Smith and Dickerson=Obermayor and Jowett.

 

Grantland Rice wrote in 1950,

"Outside of Fitzsimmons, a heavyweight with a freak build, the two top-raters among middleweights have been Stanley Ketchel and Harry Greb.
The meeting of this pair would have been a ring classic. The West still goes with Ketchel. The East rides with Greb. Of the two Ketchel was the better puncher, Greb the better boxer. ..."

Interesting.

 

ED HUGHES article, 1925 :

[url]http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=njsuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AtcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4775,6344839&dq=harry+greb+stanley+ketchel&hl=en[/url]

 

Up until then I can't think of anyway these two couldn't be ranked 1 and 2.

Good stuff!:good

 

Ed Hughs was onna the few and perhaps loudest ny voices Harry Greb had.

 

S, nice article you posted on my favorite fighter Harry Greb...Haven't read it before..The more you read about Harry Greb, the more you are amazed at that "seven year itch ", as he was aptly described. My dad,as I have posted saw Harry Greb brutally defeat Gene Tunney in 1922 at MSG,and called Greb the best fighter he ever saw, including Ray Robinson,who he and I as a youngster saw as a welterweight, for what it's worth. Thanks for the article...

 

If you want to get a feeling on how good Ketchel was read The Killing of Stanley Ketchel by James Carlos Blake.

One on Greb that details Greb's fight life:
Give him to the angels; The story of Harry Greb
James R Fair