Henry Armstrong or Harry Greb - who had the more impressive peak runs?

I believe Armstrong and Greb may have had the two most incredible peak-year runs of any fighters in history. Which would you say was more impressive?

Armstrong, 1937-1938 - Went 26-0 in 1937, with all but one of his wins by KO. Stopped Petey Sarron for the only time in his lengthy career to unify the FW title, also reportedly scored the only outright KO of HOFer Benny Bass' career, and scored other stoppages over contenders Mike Belloise and Tony Chavez. In '38, he scored one of the biggest and most impressive wins in all of boxing history when he jumped up two major weight classes and completely trounced a long-reigning, ATG champion in Barney Ross. He followed that up by pulling off the unduplicated feat of holding three world title simultaneously, when he beat another HOFer in Lou Ambers. He followed all that up by beating #1 WW contender (and future MW champ) Ceferino Garcia. Also that year, he beat two other HOFers in Baby Arizmendi and future FW champ Chalkey Wright, the latter by a crushing KO.

Harry Greb, 1918-1919 - Following a "loss" (according to some reports) in a competitive no-decision with MW champ Mike O'Dowd, Greb embarked on an extensive "winning" (albeit often unofficially) streak over the next two years, spanning from MW through HW. In that time, he was credited with beating HOF MW contender Mike Gibbons, HOF LHW champs Jack Dillon & Battling Levinsky, and HOF HW contender Billy Miske. He also beat HW contender Bill Brennan, MW contenders Eddie McGoorty & Joe Chip (the latter a former conqueror), ex-MW champ Al McCoy, future LHW champ Mike McTigue, former top HW contender Gunboat Smith, and notable HW journeymen like Willie Meehan & Bartley Madden. Virtually all of these wins were considered clear and decisive, and in many cases he beat them more than once in this span.

I think Armstrong may have had the greater individual feats, but Greb had the greater volume of quality wins.

Thoughts?

 

Tough question! What these guys did over this span is more than most achieve in a whole career. Phenomenal stuff.

I'm edging to greb purely because his run was so fearsome the champs didn't give him his shot.

 

Ask Homicide if he wants to wage a 100 or so battles minus sight in one eye.

 

Armstrong. The names he stacks up over that time frame are astounding.

 

Greb. He didn't just beat those names in that span, but most of the best of those names he beat several times. He also fought about once a week in that span.

 

Armstrong shellacking Barney Ross is the greatest achievement between the two but Greb decimated guys far too big for him to be fighting and he did it fighting almost once a week. He near erased Battling Levinsky, who was light heavy weight champ at the time too, no?

 

Near erased Bat?
See thats the Greb handicap. He fought during the ND era. His 1917 fight vs Bat in Pittsburgh was an annihilation of the then lt heavyweight champ who was saved by the
bell at the end of the tenth round.

 

I think the fact that Armstrong beat these guys when they were champions gives him the slight edge.

 

Also I see boxrec lists Grebs weight at 150 for the fight against Miske. Seems very light for Greb considering he was going up against a bigger man. Anyone know anything about that ?

 

Same here:-(

 

Its a boxdreck typo

 

Ross was a great, great fighter and champion, but he was finished and knew it. Im not trying to take anything away from Armstrong, but I think a case can be made for Grebs fight with Mike Gibbons being a greater win. There was no title at stake but Gibbons gave Greb loads of trouble and was and is highly thought of.

 

:huh I thought Greb didn't start losing his sight until a year or so later?

Incidentally, I believe Armstrong did also suffer from vision problems in the later stages of his career.

 

What run did Greb go on with a shattered arm?