Greb v.s. Tunney ... Great Article !

This article is a prime example of why anything out of Fair's mouth should be ignored. He ascerts that he was a boxing writer. He actually says this in the article. Fair was never, NEVER a boxing writer. He worked for the press bureau as a telegrapher sending the reports of ringside reporters to their various newspaper offices around the country. He has on many occasions, most notably in his book, ascerted that he was a friend of Greb. Not true. He may, MAY, have been an acquientance but he certainly didnt run around with Greb as he has often stated. Furthermore, if Tunney learned so much in his lopsided, brutal, and bloody defeat (where he freely admits that he passed out afterwards, became violently ill in the dressing room, and was so swollen about the body that he had to have his trunks cut off him for them to be removed, then why was his second fight against Greb adjudged one of the worst decisions in history with the vast majority of ringside reports stating that Greb won and several said he beat Tunney just as easily as he did in their first fight. Furthermore, Fair says Greb never beat Tunney again. Not true, but Fair wouldnt know that because he wasnt in Cleveland the night Harry beat Tunney there. Fair could only read the bogus AP report that wound up in New York saying Tunney either won or drew with Greb. Fair was a joke.

 

How about Tunney's assertion that he carried Greb in their last fight?

 

The lone fight Greb officially won would really have been a NC under modern rules. Greb smashed his head into Tunney's nose and face. Chalk it up as an accidental head butt. The result was Tunney lost a lot of blood, could not see well and was on the defensive the entire fight. Many at the fight wanted it stopped, which in those days meant the damage must have been significant. When the final bell rang to end the fight, the crowd gave Tunney applause just for going the distance.

Regarding the second fight, its a case of my newspaper is better than yours as their are conflicting opinions. I would throw out the Pittsburgh and NY press, and look for a neutral report, say from LA. It should be noted that Tunney wanted 6th fight, but Greb did not.

 

None of this is true either. Most reports state that Greb broke Tunneys nose with the first PUNCH of the fight. Not a headbutt. And Greb, did in fact agree to a sixth bout against Tunney to be held in Miami in early 1926. It was Tunney and his management that never returned Greb's replies and instead decided to face Young Stribling. That fight was scrapped as well when it became clear that Tunney was the front runner for a fight with Dempsey.

If the vast majority of Tunney's hometown papers said Greb won how is that a bias? Furthermore, in those days it was highly unlikely that an LA paper would have paid to send a writer to New York to cover the fight. Instead it was far more common to rely on AP reports or special by-lines written by a reporter already there covering the fight for a local paper.

 

That was a brilliant read, cheers :thumbsup

 

"What's wrong?" he said irritably. "You've heard what all these people are saying about what an easy fight it was for me. They're crazy. It wasn't an easy fight, it was my hardest. I was so arm-weary and leg-tired from trying to knock Gene out I was in almost as bad shape as he was, but because he lost so much blood and I didn't lose any these boobs tell me I had a soft touch. Would you call an opponent a soft touch if you had hit him as hard as you could for 15 rounds and seldom made him stagger? Why, I couldn't even come close to dropping him. I was in there with a guy tonight who has an iron jaw and an iron will, and I don't look forward to our next meeting."

Someone said, "But you'll fight him again, won't you?"

"Sure. Fighting is my trade and I'll fight him any time, but it's gonna be a different story the next time."

The late Harry Keck, dean of Pittsburgh sports editors, was the first of only three well-known reporters to pick Gene to beat Dempsey for the heavyweight title in Philadelphia in 1926 and then to pick him to retain it in a rematch in Chicago the next year. Keck asked Greb that night if Tunney had hurt him at any time during the fight.

"Hell, yes," said Greb. "He hurt me in damn nearly every round—and him bleeding the way he was. Don't let anyone tell you he's just a counterpunching boxer who can't hurt you. He's the most punishing and most accurate hitter I ever fought. If you don't take the fight to him he'll take it to you, and any move you make is usually the wrong one. You end up catching a left in the puss and a stinging straight right to the body. I couldn't keep away from that right."

very intresting quote there

Tunney himself, interviewed after the fight, had a less dramatic but perhaps more informative explanation of what had happened. He gave at least some of the credit to Abe Attell, the old (1904-1912) featherweight champion who was a ringside spectator. "Abe was sitting near my corner," said Gene, "and when he saw the sorry condition I was in he ducked out to the nearest druggist and bought his entire supply of adrenalin chloride, a coagulant. He slipped the bottle to Doc Bagley, my manager. Between rounds Doc's fingers flew. He is a superb cut man. He managed to stop the bleeding, but he couldn't keep Greb from busting my face apart after that."

Intresting that another fighte thought it was a really bad cut and tried to help

The ferocity of the hammering Greb took is indicated by a remark he made toward the end. In a clinch, he said, 'Gene, don't knock me out.' That from Harry Greb was monumental. No one was gamer. Pain and punches meant nothing to him—the cruel mauling, the bruising punishment. But Harry, hopelessly beaten, didn't want the folks back home to read that he had been knocked out.

This is intresting did Tunney carry him the last few rounds?

 

GPater, someone posted a massive version of what you just posted a while ago on here, absolutely brilliant read it was.

 

i was just highlighting the very intresting bits

 

Oh ok, the whole thing is something special isn't it? I was high on it for days after reading

 

yes it is a good read

but these things were intresting things i ddint know

 

Klompton has a book coming out on Greb shortly,maybe he is keeping his powder dry and does not want to reveal to many titbits for free?

 

Bingo! Sometimes I catch myself spouting off too much but there will PLENTY in my book that is new, never before revealed, and fascinating. Not just on Greb but on all of the great and not so great fighters of his era and weight classes.

 

...greb picked tunney to beat dempsey based on their five fight series. he said he beat him big in the first fight but "by the fifth one i couldn't handle him any more."

interesting comment by greb on tunney's right hand to the body. one scribe...i don't remember who but it was one i thought was knowledgeable said that tunney's short right hand to the heart was one of his greatest weapons, but seldom commented on.

i guess it's possible but it's hard for me to imagine greb asking not to be knocked out and tunney going along with it.