did greb have enough money behind him? to what extent did the public want the match? did press opinion give greb a chance of winning? when did it come closest to happening? if dempsey wins would you rate him higher ?(a loss 2 dempsey shouldn't change opinions of greb outside of likely having greb footage)
Yes, he did have the money behind him. But that is only to put the fight on. The gate is where the money gets made. The public wanted the match, but not as much as we do now. Greb was often mentioned as a possible opponent for Dempsey in the press at the time. Press didn't really tend to wade in on the fights as much as they do now. What is interesting is that common opponents gave him a good chance. Brennan picked Greb to beat Dempsey should they have fought. It came closest to happening when Greb was past-prime. There was talk of a fight for Dempsey before the Tunney fight and Greb was in the frame. Got nixxed of course, but they seemed ready to talk to each other for a while.
yeah, money to make fight, public interest to make profit on it (bold)that is interesting, did he give reasons? It was a mistake to fight tunney without a warmup, greb isnt really a warm up fight i'd want though. I dont like all the 'X ducked everyone' talk because they were making money, and good business is good business. but barring personal involvment in his business interests, dempsey seems to have left money in the ring. thanks 4 helping me see more of the truth about a murky situation.
yeah Greb was probably the nukber 3 hw for the majority of Dempsey's reign. Would have been his best victory by some distance.
Does it astonish anyone else that Greb beat four of the six men Dempsey defended his title against but never fought for the title? He beat these guys right before they went in with the champ, too, it's not like he was taking Dempsey's leavings - the other way around.
That is fascinating. Greb seemed to get his mits on everybody from that era. Why didn't he ever end up fighting Langford or Wills?
No it doesn't surprise me, it was such an orchestrated reign. It pisses me off how much some of the old timers got ****ed over.
it amazes me. this isn't a colour issues, it's an outright duck. **** the people saying "yeah but he was a middleweight" that's utter bull****. he routinely fought and beat the best heavyweight and light heavyweight contenders out there. From 20-23 he was far and wide the best mw-lhw and dominated both divisions, as well as that he was beating up men dempsey was fighting. greb handled him in sparring and as a result dempsey decided he wanted none of that and feasted on his leftovers. harsh but true.
"Yeah he was a middleweight". He was a light-heavyweight for the most part and he was bigger than Carpantier who was somehow big enough to get in there. Mystery.
Totally agree. The wills duck I can conceive because of the times but not fighting Greb and instead facing people he beat, it's impossible to justify.
Greb Believes He Could Outbox Dempsey by Harry Greb http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZR8bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xEkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3754,3434473